A Mile in Your Eyes
by Araceil
Summary: When Harry is left on Petunia's doorstep, she panics and writes a letter to her estranged older sister who eloped some years ago with a foreigner, Rosemary Evans. Four years later, it arrives on her doorstep, only her name is Kaede Haruno now.
1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

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Lots of pairings. Naruto guys first, HP next and then crossover pairings after.

**Haruno Sakura / Rock Lee**, Uchiha Itachi / Uzumaki Naruto, **Sabaku no Gaara / Hyuuga Hinata**, Sabaku no Temari / Nara Shikamaru, **Hatake Kakashi / Umino Iruka**, Aburame Shino / Yamanka Ino, **Li Ling Tenten / Inuzuka Kiba**, Hyuuga Neji / Uzumaki Sai, **Sarutobi Konohamaru / Akimichi Moegi**, Maito Gai / Mitarashi Anko, **Senjuu Tsunade / Gama Jiraiya.**

Remus Lupin / Nymphadora Tonks

**Charlie Weasley / Hyuuga Hanabi**.

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WARNING: Character death, slash, foul language, gore/violence, explicit scenes, slight Sasuke!Bashing, HP!Canon-buggering, Manipulative!Meddling!Dumbledore, Jounin-lvl!Iruka, Independent!Powerful!Bad-ass!Rookie 11, Evil!Self-serving!Village Council.

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_When Petunia Catherin Dursley – nee Evans, awoke to her infant nephew on the porch, she did the only thing she could think of that would keep the Freaks happy and the boy as far away as possible. She writes to her estranged older sister Rosemary, who eloped to the Far East with a foreigner some years before Lily was invited to attend Hogwarts and asks her to take the boy in._

_Three years later, that letter finally reaches Rosemary Elizabeth Evans – in Konohagakure no Sato._

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter One**

-

He wasn't sure if he hated, or if he loved summer.

There were lots of things he wasn't sure if he hated or loved.

He didn't have a very good concept of hate or love either. After all, he was only four.

Little Harry James Potter was smart, he was _a lot_ smarter than his family, and because of that, he was smart enough to hide it. He was already a Freak, he didn't want to be a Homeless Freak that lived in the gutter eating rats and old boots like Uncle said he would if he didn't finish all his chores.

Which was why he was toiling away in the back garden under the harsh sunlight, feeling light headed and dizzy as he tended to his Aunt's rosebushes, another thing he wasn't sure if he liked or hated. The rosebushes didn't shout at him or insult him, they grew under his care, flourished even, they smelled and looked pretty but they were just plants, and they had thorns and he was always sent out to tend to them in the hot summer or the freezing cold winter. So he was conflicted.

For a four-year-old child, being conflicted was unusual, but Harry had always been unusual, so there was nothing strange about it.

He could hear his cousin Dudley screaming for more sweets and repressed his annoyance, there was no conflict when it came to his cousin, the blonde boy was a bully and he didn't like him, the feeling was mutual. The same with Vernon, Harry held him in equal parts fear, anger and dislike, just as Vernon feared, hated and got angry at him. It was his _Aunt_, Petunia, that confused him. There were times when she would be nice to him, not nice in the same way she was to Dudley, but nice in the way that she would _let_ him sneak an extra slice of toast, or use proper shampoo in the bathtub 'by accident', or pretend to be bored enough to do the gardening herself, letting him stay in his cupboard with an old notebook and a pen to amuse himself. But other times, she was even meaner than Uncle Vernon, she would spank him hard enough to leave bruises for small mistakes, she wouldn't feed him at all, she'd send him out to deal with the roses in a thunderstorm – though thankfully it had only been the once, when he'd caught pneumonia and they'd needed to go to the hospital she learned that her nephew, despite his freakishness, was just as fragile as any other child.

He hummed a song he remembered hearing Aunt Petunia singing to Dudley when she put him to bed as he turned from the rosebushes to the little flowering shrubs just below, Dudley's screaming had stopped and he heard the TV flick on, obviously they'd given in and handed over the jar of gummies they'd tried to hide on top of the Fridge. They would be gone within an hour or so if Harry knew his cousin.

"Boy, that's enough." Aunt Petunia called from the backdoor, apparently she was in a 'Nice' mood today, maybe she would even let him have some of the orange squash from the fridge instead of just tap water? No luck, she'd already poured him a pint glass of tap water, he didn't complain though as he smiled gratefully at her and took the glass, he knew better than to sit anywhere in her clean kitchen so he made his way back outside and sat gingerly on one of the old rotting plastic deck-chairs he'd been forced to clean earlier to drink his water. Feeling liquid soak into your brain was a strange sensation but a very nice one he decided as his headache began to abate and his dizziness faded, the ever so slight trembling of his hands stopped, feeling the coolness doing down your neck and into your tummy was another strange sensation.

He looked up warily as he heard the doorbell, that couldn't have been Uncle Vernon, he wasn't due back for a few more hours, panic began to build in his little frame, if his Uncle saw him slacking off and drinking from one of the pint-glasses he would get upset. Harry jumped to his feet and scurried into the kitchen just as Petunia left to go and answer the door, the four-year-old quickly stuck his glass into the dishwasher and slipped back into the garden, he couldn't see anything else that needed doing but he was certain that his Uncle would so the smaller child hurriedly began to haul a bag of compost out of the shed to spread over the flower-beds.

Distantly, he could hear voices, his Aunt's, a strange man's with an accent he couldn't pin down and then... a young girl's, older than him but definitely younger than Aunt Petunia.

"Forgive my Teacher Dursley-san he unfortunately doesn't speak English. My name is Sakura Haruno, I'm looking for Harry Potter-"

Harry dropped his compost bag.

-

Sakura wasn't entirely sure about what to make of this.

This being the strange folded piece of paper her Shishou had just received with her mother's name on it and a strange foreign language neither of them had ever seen. Though the 14-year-old was willing to bet it was the same language her mother occasionally swore or hummed songs in while she was doing the washing up.

But her mother wasn't a spy, she was kind and sweet and even liked _Naruto_, she would scold her for saying harsh things about him, her father hadn't been happy to hear it but one look from his wife and he'd suddenly become that much more interested in his food. Sakura watched as the ANBU guard escorted her mother in, the pinkette didn't know what had been said but the moment her mother clapped eyes on her she was instantly swept into a tight hug.

"Oh thank the Kamis, when the ANBU told me to come in I feared the worst!" ah, that explained it, lack of information and a demand to meet with the Hokage, of course she became concerned with the wellbeing of her only child who just so happened to be the apprentice of said Hokage.

"I'm fine Okaasan. See? Picture of health, Tsunade-sama and Shizune-senpai have been taking good care of me." The newly promoted Chuunin soothed, pushing her mother back enough so she could get a good look at her. She gave an apologetic look to the blonde woman who merely waved it off and lounged in her chair, the strange paper square that caused her to summon the Chuunin's mother in front of her.

"Haruno-san," the Sannin spoke sharply, making Sakura's mother startle and look up at her, "I requested your presence because I have a few questions for you." She announced, watching the other woman shrewdly for any sign of discomfort, wariness, anything that could point the finger at her as a spy.

She merely blinked in confusion and nodded, "Of course Tsunade-sama, I'm just a civilian but I will answer as best I can." She agreed demurely, bowing politely. Well at least she had manners.

"Your records in the village are a little spotty; I would like to know where you were born." She didn't make that one a request and this time was rewarded with some very obvious signs of discomfort from the red haired woman.

"I wasn't born in the Village if that's what you're trying to get at Hokage-sama." She admitted, ignoring the slight tightening of Tsunade's eyes, she had grown used to the respect her position gave her and the way Haruno-san spoke was just shy of hostile. "I wasn't even born in the Hidden Countries before you go thinking that I'm a spy." She added, "When Takeshi and I met... it was overseas, he had joined with some of your Shinobi on a mission as a consultant, my father and I were going through a rough patch and we bumped into each other by accident. I remembered seeing some of them using some Jutsus and got rather excited, you see, my younger sister Lily, sometimes things around happen around her when she got scared or angry, glass objects would explode, the lights would flicker, there would be a breeze even though the windows were closed, sometimes things would even float or change colour or she would even teleport, kind of like the Yondaime but with a loud crack of sound instead of a flash of light. I thought that the Shinobi might be able to teacher her how to control it and begged them for help, I even paid them as best I could. They weren't going to do it but the team captain convinced them, he said that someone with an out of control Kekki Genkai was dangerous without training so they agreed and stuck around for a while trying to teach her how to control her abilities while I showed Takeshi around the city to see all the architecture and other things, he still won't tell me what he was looking for but that's fine.

"By the time the Shinobi gave up trying to teach my sister, we'd... well I was in love. My father refused to allow me to be with him so when it came time for everyone to return to Konoha, I went with them. The Sandaime was happy for us; he even presided over our wedding himself and allowed me to change my name. A couple of years later and I had Sakura-chan. I've sent a few letters back home but I never received any reply so I just... gave up. I guess I must have really hurt everyone by leaving like that."

"How romantic." Shizune admitted with a soft wistful smile.

"It was." Sakura's mother admitted with a warm smile, "He couldn't speak a word of my language so he kept having to mime everything or draw it on a notepad. It was so cute when he tried to ask me to go out on a date; he even got me a bouquet of white roses."

Sakura watched in amusement as Shizune and her mother began to gossip and squeal like preteens while Tsunade watched with a raised eyebrow and a smile of indulgence on her mouth.

"Enough. I think my ANBU are about to die of this." The blonde woman joked, casting a glance from the corner of her eye to the male ANBU guard in the corner of the room, "You said your sister had a Kekki Genkai, is it possible to pass onto Skaura? How did she awaken it?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. No one in our family has had it, only her, and the Shinobi said that it wasn't Chakra; she was using a different kind of energy. The white haired one, ummm..... Sakuma-Sakumo? He said that it was a kind of Hermit-Sage Chakra derivative, watered down and without physical Chakra." Tsunade stiffened in disbelief before she picked up the folded over paper.

"This was handed to one of my Jounin by a Merchant in Tea Country; he said it was from _very_ far away. It has your name on it and a language I don't recognise." She announced, handing it over to the woman who frowned at it. "What is it?"

"It is a letter Tsunade-sama but... only my parents, Lily and Petunia know where I live now." She admitted cracking it open and pulling out the sheet of paper within, making the Shinobi blink in curiosity as she set the envelope down on the table and read through the letter.

"You said you changed your name, Haruno-san, what was your original birth name?"

"It was Rosemary, Evans Rosemary."

-

Petunia's face bleached white, "There's no Harry Potter here!" She snarled and slammed the door shut in that hooligan's face, imagine a young lady dying her hair such a ridiculous colour and cavorting around with a man three times her age who didn't even have the decency to wear normal clothing.

Harry peeked warily from the backdoor at her and she suddenly started to scowl, he was the reason why there were such ruffians on her doorstep, the blonde woman advanced on the child. "Get in your Cupboard. I don't want to hear a _peep_ out of you for the rest of the day boy." She growled darkly, cruel fingers snagging the unruly mop of dark black hair that tangled into a birds nest on his head as she forcibly marched him into the cupboard under the stairs.

She ignored the doorbell sounding as she wrenched it open and roughly threw the four-year-old inside and slammed the door shut, sneering slightly at the faint whimper she heard from behind the thin wood as she locked it up tight and closed the air vent. The bell sounded again.

"GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!!" She shrieked down the hall as she turned and marched back into the kitchen.

Outside, Sakura and Kakashi exchanged glances.

"_I'm surprised. Your mother is so kind but her sister seems to be even more foul tempered than the Daimyou's cat_." Kakashi admitted lazily in Japanese, his voice dripping with dislike to the pinkette's ears – she'd learned how to read her Sensei effectively over the years.

"_And no where near as attractive either_." She added sourly before reaching behind her and removing her leather gloves, ignoring the way Kakashi took several steps backwards and the curtains of several neighbours twitched.

"_Try not to destroy the entire house_." Kakashi requested before burying his nose in his pervy book, Make Out Violence, silently praying that Jiraiya-sama would release his new book _soon_.

The two of them must have made quite the picture to the neighbours, a tall lanky grey haired man giggling over an orange book wearing a pair of blue pants with the ankles wrapped in bandages, a green flack-jacket with a red swirl on the back, a face mask and a strange metal plated headband slanted just enough to cover one eye and a sweet looking young girl with short bob-cut bubblegum pink hair, a similar metal plated headband used as a hair ribbon, a pair of black cycle shorts under a pale lilac swallow tail skirt, knee high black boots, and a similar green flack-jacket over a sleeveless red top.

Sakura smirked and glanced over her shoulder, green eyes glinting, "_Of course not Kakashi-sensei._" She soothed him with a sunny smile, "_Only the door._" She added with an evil smirk as she turned around and punched straight through the wood with a grunt of effort that turned into a snarl as she ripped the door clean off its hinges and tossed it casually into the street. Ignoring the screaming that suddenly erupted from within the house as she strode in calm as you please, the grey haired man trailing after her, giggling over his book.

The pink haired girl Glared at Petunia, "As I was saying before you interrupted." This was stated with an extremely irritated look that said she didn't think much of Petunia Dursley's manners, "My name is Sakura Haruno and I am here for Harry Potter as my mother is unavailable to travel right now." She announced brandishing an envelope under the blonde woman's nose.

Petunia gaped, that was the letter she'd sent three years ago to her older sister!

-

"_Rosemary,_

_Do not for one moment think I am writing you out of any kind of desire to reconnect to my older sister. I have no desire to befriend the woman who tore apart our family so she could run off with some foreign trash who gave her a couple of good nights in exchange for trying to teach Lily how to control her Freakishness. Well she learned how to control it anyway; they have a school for Freaks up in the north, that's where she met her good-for-nothing Husband._

_Didn't know we were both married did you? Not that you would care, _dearest sister.

_Anyway, Lily went and got herself blown up with her idiot husband and now _I've_ been landed with their freak spawn. I will not have it in my house Rosemary. The freaks say that he can only go to someone who has a blood connection with him; I refuse to have that kind of Abnormality around my precious Dudley. _

_The boy is yours. Its about time you tried to make some reparations for all the damage you've done to this family, you can start with making sure this Freak doesn't destroy the family I've created for myself._

_You'll find me at number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey, the boy's name is Harry James Potter; he was born on the 31st of July._

_Come and take the brat, I don't want you or him to be in my house any longer than you possibly have to._

_Petunia._

_P.S. Father had you legally disowned so don't go thinking you'll be getting anything out of their Wills._

-

Sakura was fast beginning to loose her patience with this woman.

She didn't think she'd ever met someone so close-minded and shallow in her life! Even Ino hadn't been this bad during the very height of their so called 'rivalry'.

Dursley Petunia was a foul, loathsome, petty little woman who spent all of her time trying to make herself seem more important by belittling others. She kept giving Sakura's hair dirty looks and Kakashi absolutely filthy glances every time he giggled over his book, apparently she had just about as much respect for Jiraiya-sama's literary genius as herself and Tsunade-sama. Oddly enough, Shizune was a fan much to her surprise; it just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover.

The woman was a poor Host as well, she grudgingly allowed them into the house but refused to have them anywhere other than the kitchen, her son was currently in the living room rotting his brain watching the TV and trying his damnedest to turn his blood into 80-percent sugar. She glared, growled and sneered at them and didn't even offer any refreshments, her mother _had_ warned her that Petunia-obasan would be very impolite and unhappy to see them, but she wasn't expecting this level of petty hostility.

Things only got worse when Vernon arrived home.

Inner!Sakura was rampaging around her head, shrieking abuse and foul language punctuated with various ideas about how to kill them and hide the bodies so that not even Kakashi-sensei's Nin Dogs could find them. If the two weren't hurling not-so-subtle abuse at her mother's good name, they were insulting her for her hair – regardless of how many times she told them it was natural they either called her a hooligan for dying it or a freak because it was natural – Kakashi had put away his book and even though he wore the professional mask of a Shinobi she could tell he was seething.

"Enough!" She finally snapped, standing up and smacking her hand down on the table and glaring at them, "No! You will not be getting paid for taking care of him. He is your family; it was your duty so don't start whinging. No, you will _not_ have to provide for anything. I have a high paying job as the assistant to the leader of our Village, my father is our head architect and my mother works part time at a flower shop, we have more than enough money to support another mouth. And lastly, no, we will not be coming back. Now where is he so we can be on our way?"

Petunia got up, muttering under her breath about lack of manners and Sakura's temper frayed just a little bit more, she frowned slightly when she heard something unlocking in the hall and movement before a second child came in, as different from the fat blonde brat in the living room as night was to day.

Harry Potter was a tiny little waif of a child, he was four but he had the height of a two-year-old and probably half the weight of one, his clothing was obviously second-hand and hung from his thin frame like a dress, the neckline threatening to slip off of his shoulders on occasion, his skin was pale but sunburned and dirty from being outside in the garden for too long, his hair was a thick unruly mess of pure raven black with a pair of bright emerald green eyes peeking shyly out from under a thick shaggy fringe. Sakura had to fight herself not to squeal and sweep the child into a bone crushing hug and pinch his cheeks, he was so frickin' _adorable!_ Even Tsunade-sama would melt at the sight of those eyes.

Sakura got to her feet and smiled at the four-year-old before crossing the kitchen and kneeling in front of him, ignoring Petunia-obasan as she did so and leaving Kakashi-sensei to finish staring down Vernon-ojisan.

"Hey there Harry." She greeted softly, lifting a hand up, "My name is Sakura, it's nice to meet you."

Harry eyed her seriously, eyes too old to belong to such a young child before hesitantly taking her leather gloved hand with his own work rough and grubby little one and shook it slightly, "Nice to meet you too Sacrula." He replied quietly, stumbling slightly over the foreign name.

She smiled at him before patting his head softly, "Harry, you know how Dudley is your cousin, yeah?" She asked, watching as he nodded, "Well, your mummy, Aunt Petunia and my mummy were all sisters, which means that my mummy is your Aunt as well. I'm your Aunty Rosemary's daughter, which makes us cousins too." She explained, watching as his nose scrunched up adorably in thought before he nodded hesitantly, "Aunt Petunia wrote to us when you were given to her, she wanted us to come and take you in because it would be easier to take care of you, I was already old enough to take care of myself so my mum could spend all her time with you. But the letter took a long time to arrive, we only got it a few days ago, but we'd still like for you to come and live with us." She explained soothingly, ignoring the way Petunia was watching the exchange with a sneer curling on her lips.

Harry stared up at her with big green eyes, "You... want to take me away from the Dursleys'?" He asked hesitantly, "You _want_ me to live with you?" He asked, his voice confused as he tasted the words like they were a kind of foreign substance. Which, they probably were considering how everyone else was acting.

"Of course we do Harry-chan. I wouldn't be here if we didn't." The pinkette pointed out with a smile, it was like trying to get Tora to trust you after he'd been through a particularly harrowing escape from the Daimyou's wife, Shijimi-hime.

Slowly, like the sun peeking out from behind dark clouds, the child began to smile.

Sakura smiled back happily, before holding her hand out, "Now, why don't you show me your room so we can get your things, ne?" She suggested, tilting her head with a smile.

The four-year-old nodded happily as he tugged her out of the small kitchen and into the hall, "This is where I sleep." he announced happily as he pulled open the cupboard door revealing the nest of old clothes, blankets, the ratty mattress and assortment of little shoe boxes that had all his worldly possessions within. Sakura had to bite her lips and clench her fists to prevent herself from marching back into the kitchen and punching through Petunia like she had the front door.

"It's a little small, Harry-chan." She admitted before winking at him, "Your room at my house will be much bigger, promise. Don't bother taking your clothes; kaachan has some waiting for you at home."

The child beamed at her and took one of his shoe boxes from the shelf and began to pack all his worldly possessions into it, a few chipped and broken toy soldiers, an old notebook with what she could see were a few leaves, flowers and the occasional scrap of spare paper stuffed into it, an earring with a mother of pearl chip set into the silver and lastly an old orange blanket with bluebirds and deer stitched into the corner, it was ratty and dirty with age and lack of washing but obviously very well loved.

While Harry was busy packing, Sakura slipped back into the kitchen and gave Petunia a look of poison, "If it were allowed in our Mission parameters, I would kill you." She spat, green eyes narrowed.

"_Maa, maa, Sakura, you're leaking Killing Intent, try not to scare little Harii-chan just yet._" Kakashi admonished her in amusement. Watching the two foul Civilians wilt and shrink away from their fourteen-year-old niece – who just so happened to be capable of shattering stone with her fists – his nose and ears were highly accurate, he could smell the hunger, enclosed spaces, sickness and dehydration on little Harii-chan, he heard the cupboard under the stairs being opened and Petunia forcibly dragging the child out by the arm, hard enough to leave bruises that were only just beginning to form on his arm.

"_They deserve it._" The pink haired girl seethed but never the less restrained herself just in time for Harii-chan to peek into the kitchen, shoebox held tightly to his chest. "You ready to go Harry-chan?" The Chuunin asked brightly as she smiled at him, Harry nodded shyly and squeaked slightly uncertainly as the 14-year-old swept him up, balancing him on her hip and holding the shoebox out to Kakashi. "This is Ka-Ka-Shi Ha-Ta-Ke, he's my teacher and a friend." She explained to the child, pointing to the grey haired Jounin as they made their way down the hall and out of the house.

"Cacashie Hahtackie?" The four-year-old repeated hesitantly, pointing at the Jounin to confirm, Kakashi-sensei smiled and waved cheerfully, guessing that they were talking about him as they left the garden, ignoring the people who had come out of their homes to stare at the splintered ruin Sakura had made of the Dursleys' front door.

Sakura giggled, "Kaka-_shi_ Hata-_keh_, Harry-chan, _keh_." She explained, trying to distract little Harry from the staring of those around them, it seemed to work but he was beginning to tense in her arms the further and further away they moved from the house. "Calm down Harry-chan, we would never hurt you or let anyone else hurt you." She promised.

"_Let's go Sakura; it's a long trip back._" Kakashi told her before beginning to jog down the street.

"_Hai Kakashi-sensei._ I'm going to start running now Harry-chan, you hold on tight to me and tell me if you start feeling queasy, we're going to be going really fast now." She warned the four-year-old and felt his grip on her tighten, she smiled, he had a good grip, he would make a good Shinobi if he ever wanted to make a go of it.

A split second later, the two Shinobi vanished; leaving little more than a few leafs to drift absently in the wind.

-

**Finito 8D**

**Major update peoples. Black Birds, Lightning on the Wave, Resonance, two new stories, A Mile in Your Eyes – HPNaruto crossover featuring Harry and Sakura as cousins. And Distance – a new take on the whole 'Harry leaves the Wizarding world' gig. Check them out and enjoy the updates 8DD If possible. I'm having severe computer problems right now. Go check the updates anyway and if it isn't showing, then there's a chance it hasn't worked.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

_When Petunia Catherin Dursley – nee Evans, awoke to her infant nephew on the porch, she did the only thing she could think of that would keep the Freaks happy and the boy as far away as possible. She writes to her estranged older sister Rosemary, who eloped to the Far East with a foreigner some years before Lily was invited to attend Hogwarts and asks her to take the boy in._

_Three years later, that letter finally reaches Rosemary Elizabeth Evans – in Konohagakure no Sato._

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Two**

-

The trip back to Konoha took significantly more time than it did getting to Surrey, mainly because the two Shinobi couldn't **Shunshin** (_Body Flicker_) as much as they had before and because of their fragile cargo.

Sakura absolutely _adored_ Harry, she was constantly hugging him, kissing his forehead and cheeks, tickling him and generally trying to be around him as much as possible, at first, Harry had been uncertain of all the attention and a little scared when she kept smooshing him against her but he eventually grew used to it and even relished the cuddles she bestowed upon her. He was making great headway in learning Japanese as well, he could already ask a few questions like, '_who_', '_what_' and '_where_', along with a few phrases like '_goodnight_', '_good morning_', '_hungry_', '_bathroom_', '_please_', '_thankyou_', '_excuse me/sorry_', '_my apologies/I'm sorry/please forgive me_' and '_chopsticks_/_bridge/burn_(1)'.

Kakashi treated him like a little brother, he ruffled his hair, kept an eye out for him, tried reading him Icha Icha – only to get a smack from Sakura and a giggle from the child in question – he made sure the boy was warm and safe and had enough to eat. He occasionally even allowed the boy to ride in his arms when they were running, the child seemed to enjoy going really fast, faster than Sakura could and his eyes were incredibly sharp, he was able to spot animals as they shot past and seemed to hold some kind of glee in outpacing the birds. Sakura even managed to catch the two of them playing with some of Harry's toy soldiers one evening and swore herself to secrecy when Kakashi gave her a _Look_. So he had a soft spot for the little Gaki, so did she!

Roughly about a week and a half after picking Harry up, the three of them were sat on a small boat on their way to the Hidden Countries, Sakura wasn't too happy about going back so quickly, she wanted to go touring China and Japan with Harry-chan, Kakashi pointed out that they didn't have enough time to play tourist if they wanted to catch the boat back to Tea Country. Thus meaning that Sakura was pouting from where she was perched on the roof of the cabin, blanket over her shoulders and Harry-chan curled up asleep in her lap.

She'd noticed quite early on that the four-year-old was dangerously underweight and malnourished for his age, they were lucky they'd gotten to him in time otherwise his bones and eyes would have been damaged beyond repair. As it stood, good meals, lots of sleep and the occasional gliding of a Medic Ninjutsu meant that while he would _always_ be small and slightly bird-boned for his age, he would at least have good eyesight and his bones would be strong enough to handle life as an active Ninja should he so choose to become one.

A slight breath of air against the back of her neck had the pink haired girl glancing over her shoulder, "_Kakashi-sensei._" She greeted as the ash haired male took a seat beside her, book flipped open in his hand.

They sat in silence for a while as Kakashi attempted to gather his thoughts, "_Petunia-san mentioned in her letter that the Kekki Genkai her sister had was controlled and taught to her up in the north of where they lived. Her wording claimed that there were more people with this ability... is it wise... taking Harii-chan away from there? From where he could get training to control this ability? From what Kaede-san told me, it seems quite unstable in times of extreme emotion._" The son of the White Fang pointed out, trying to be as diplomatic as possible, but even he could admit that diplomacy and human relations weren't his forte.

"_So we should have just left him there? In that cupboard?_" The 14-year-old asked quietly, arms shifting protectively around the bundle in her lap.

"_No, that's not what I'm suggesting at _all_. I'm merely pointing out that we may have to take him back someday so that he can learn to control his Kekki Genkai if there's no one in the village able to teach him._" The Jounin explained with a heavy sigh as he glanced down at the sleeping tangle of blankets and smiled fondly under his mask, rubbing his fingers through the unruly thatch of black hair, "_I think someone needs a haircut._" He pointed out, changing the subject.

Sakura giggled, "_And a new name. Potteru Harii stands out too much. He can take my last name but he needs a new first name._"

"_Haruno Harii..._" Kakashi tried, tasting the name before pulling a face, "_Perhaps he does._" He admitted with a short chuckle.

The two passed the rest of the three day boat journey trying to think of names for their little bundle of joy, so far the child only seemed to hold an interest in _Amaya, Satoshi, Hotaru, Haruki_ and _Nariko_.

They were arguing as they stepped off the boat into Tea Country, Harry clinging to Kakashi's hand as they moved through the market place towards the main road. Kakashi seemed to think _Haruki_ would suit the child better while Sakura was debating over _Hotaru_ and _Nariko_, claiming that even though they were girls' names they suited him because of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Kakashi sarcastically suggested they called him Chidori if that was how she wanted to go about it but to his horror she actually looked to be seriously considering it, he kept quiet after that and patted little Harii on the head sympathetically.

If this was how Sakura was acting, he dreaded to think how the other girls of the Rookies and indeed, some of the Jounins, would react to the newest addition to the Haruno family.

-

It was quite dark when Kakashi and Sakura landed just outside the gates of Konohagakure no Sato, Harry curled up fast asleep in Kakashi's arms, Genma and Raido peered at the sleeping child curiously before grinning and telling Sakura to bring him over next time they were on gate duty so they could meet him properly. She'd agreed and the three of them quickly made their way to the Chuunin's house where her mother was asleep on the sofa looking tired and drawn, while Sakura set Harii-chan's bed up in her room, Kakashi carefully woke the woman up and told her to get some sleep, she could meet Harry in the morning.

The Jounin didn't envy her; after they'd left to go and retrieve Harry, Kaede-san had no doubt been taken to Interrogation and questioned by Ibiki or Anko, Ibiki most likely as he was the more reasonable out of the two. When Sakura came back in she quickly went about making him a nice hot cup of tea before ushering him into the guest room – which would later be Harii's – and ordering him to get some sleep before turning in his report.

Knowing better than to argue, the masked Jounin did as he was told and slipped under the bedcovers, listening as Sakura rinsed out their cups, set them on the side before going to bed herself.

The next morning, he awoke to the smell of fried eggs, tomato, bacon and sausage drifting into his nostrils and making his stomach snarl in attention, chuckling slightly, he quickly got up and dressed, making the bed out of courtesy before joining Kaede in the kitchen for another cup of tea.

"We'll have to get him some new clothes, some toys as well, a check-up at the hospital, register him with the Hokage's office, maybe even introduce him to her, and we'll need to change his name too so he won't stick out too obviously as a foreigner." The woman was muttering under her breath as she began to dish up the food onto four plates before realising that it wasn't just her, Takeshi, Harry and Sakura this morning and quickly taking out an extra plate for Kakashi who smiled gratefully to her.

"Sakura and I were talking about that, we managed to come up with a few names for him but we couldn't decide on any of them. Amaya, Satoshi, Hotaru, Haruki and Nariko were all possibilities that he seemed to like." The ash-white haired male listed.

Kaede 'hmm'ed over their choices, "Not Nariko, imagine the confusion it would cause when Naruto-kun returns, we'd forever be getting their names mixed up." Kakashi winced, he hadn't thought of that, "Haruki is nice but there are lots of Harukis in Konoha and I'd rather not get three answers every time I called for him. Amaya, Satoshi and Hotaru are nice, but Takeshi's brother was called Satoshi and they don't get along, I don't want to give the wrong idea. I guess we'll just have to ask the child which he prefers out of Amaya and Hotaru."

Not long after she'd said that, Sakura entered into the kitchen dressed in her pale lilac pyjamas with a sleepy Harry dressed in one of her old tops clinging to her hand as he rubbed his tired green eyes and yawned.

"Ohaiyo gozaimasu, Okaasan, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura greeted lazily as she waved her free hand, Harry echoing her greeting in a mumbled fashion as he leaned against her fighting back another yawn.

"Ohaiyo Sakura-chan, Harii-chan." Kaede greeted with a smile, her eyes locked on the small four-year-old with a strange intensity as she set the plates down on the table, "_Harry?_" She spoke; prompting the child to look up at her and blink as he finally began to wake up properly, "_Good morning, I'm Sakura's mother, your Aunty Rosemary. It's nice to finally meet you._" She greeted, kneeling down and holding her hand out with a smile.

Glancing up at Sakura and Kakashi, the two of them nodded encouragingly, the child tipped forward hesitantly and took her hand, "_It's nice to meet you too Aunt Rosemary_."

"_You can call me Aunt Rosie or Kay-dee-bah-chan if you'd like, Harii-chan. When I came here, I changed my name so I could fit in a little better; Kay-dee means maple leaf. Come and have some breakfast, we can talk more when our tummies are full._" She explained, carefully lifting him up from the floor so she didn't startle him and plonking him down on one of the dining room chairs, the one with the two pillows on so he could see over the edge of the table.

Breakfast was lively, Sakura translating everything for Kakashi as they explained what was happening to little Harii-chan, they gave him the option of choosing his name and he ended up choosing Amaya, meaning Night Rain, in opposition of Hotaru, meaning Firefly or Lightning Bug. He wasn't fond of his scar and didn't want his name linked with it.

After that, things turned more to what their next move was, they would need to take him to the hospital first, give him a full check up and a number of vaccination shots, and he needed to meet the Hokage and get himself some records, not to mention some clothes. Kakashi needed to go and turn in his report as well, he offered to quickly grab some clothes for Ha-Amaya on his way back and found himself being hugged by his young student who promised to pay him back. The Copy Nin chuckled and quickly poofed out, making Amaya squeal and point, asking where Kakashi had gone.

Sakura giggled and began to explain about Ninjas and Chakra while her mother went about cleaning up the breakfast dishes and putting her father's plate in the oven, apparently he was still tired from last night – he was head of the group carving Tsunade's face onto the Hokage monument, and had worked late into the night to finish it completely. He was allowed to sleep in today.

"_Bath time_." Kaede announced in English, ushering the two children down the hall to where they had a rather large bathroom. Amaya stared as they stepped in, he'd never seen a bathroom like this before, it was huge and very different, there wasn't even a toilet or a proper sink! There were two raised tubs one of which Sakura-neechan testing the temperature of the water in, there were three shower heads about a metre up off of the tiled floor with little plastic stools in front of them, there was a shelf with shampoos and body scrub, the writing on them completely foreign and impossible to understand, but he recognised some of the pictures. One was Cherry and flowers, another was a fluffy white ball, – dandelion? – one looked like it was made to smell like a tree or it had special tree sap or oil in it, he wasn't sure.

The child abruptly started to blush as the pink haired Chuunin began to strip out of her clothing and put them aside in a wicker basket beside the door. "_Come on Ha-Amaya-chan, lets get you out of those clothes, it's been a long while since either of us have had a bath._" She announced kneeling in front of him, completely uncaring of her nude state as she began to pull the baggy top from over his head. Amaya was used to caring for himself, that included washing himself, quite often he had to make due with the hose-pipe in the back garden if Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon were annoyed with him – they said hot water was too good for a free loading Freak – but never in his memory had someone else bathed him. Logically, he somehow knew that Aunt Petunia must have washed him when he was too small to do it himself but still.... this was embarrassing, Sakura-neechan was a girl!

He wasn't given a chance to argue before he found himself being whisked up and his shorts flicked off in a skilful motion, he blushed and tried to squirm free and cover himself but found himself being plunked onto one of the stools in front of a shower head and drenched in warm water. Sakura giggled as her little cousin squeaked in surprise as he was splashed, the Chuunin took a cloth and grabbed her favourite soap, the one she used when she wasn't on missions and began to lather him up. Amaya wrinkled his nose, he smelled like a girl he decided as Sakura soaped him up with the dark purplish black bar, but maybe it was the only soap she had? She was a girl after-all.

Deciding that she'd probably cleaned off all the sweat and grim from her cousin, Sakura filled one of the small tubs with warm water and poured it over the child's head, washing away the black-cherry scented soap suds. Deciding to take mercy on her little cousin's bruised male-ego, she washed his hair using the tree scented shampoo that she used for missions before rinsing him off and lifting him up from the stool.(2)

"_Now, you soak in the bath while I get clean myself._" She told him with a smile as she gently lowered him into the warm steamy water and handed him a few of her old bath-toys, put in a small tub on the shelf beside the bath, a rubber ducky, a tortoise and a boat would hopefully entertain her little cousin long enough for her to clean up and join him.

Harry smiled happily, he couldn't believe how lucky he was, his wish came true!

He had a nice relative who came and took him away from the Dursleys', she played with him and hugged him and she was way nicer to him than Aunt Petunia ever was to Dudley because she told him off for doing things wrong, even though he was really young, he knew that being told off for doing bad things was good, it meant he wouldn't do them again because he knew they were bad. She even let him play with things in the bath! The water was so warm and nice too.

Glancing up from where she was soaping herself with her On-Duty soap – scentless for the most part with the faintest hint of earth and moss – she couldn't help but smile when she saw him playing with the duck and the tortoise, having them make friends before finding the boat lost at sea and deciding to rescue the scared humans inside. How could her Aunt have been so mean as to treat him so badly? He was an absolute Doll, cute as a button and one of the sweetest little guys she'd ever met – and she'd been on enough D-rank missions to baby sit the Academy brats once Naruto had left on his training mission with Jiraiya-sama to know a good kid from a bad kid. Rinsing off and washing her hair in her tree-shampoo, the Chuunin got up and joined her little cousin in the tub, making him smile happily at her and offer up the rubber ducky for her to play with.

Half an hour later, after a rigorous adventure where Rubber Ducky had to go and save the Tortoise during a really big storm because he decided to run off like a silly and go to rescue the humans without stopping to think, Sakura was dried off and dressed in her casual clothing and thanking her Sensei profusely for getting Harry some clothes, the small black haired child was wearing a pair of black shorts and ninja sandals along with a pale blue top with a large orange toad splashed across the chest, Harry loved it and was happily showing it off for her mother.

"_Come on Amaya-chan, we're going out._" Sakura called, kissing her mother on the cheek, "I'll bring him back as soon as we've finished with Tsunade-sama okaasan. You get some rest, Ibiki-senpai isn't the easiest of people to have a conversation with as Ino-pig keeps pointing out, take a nice hot bath and relax, I'll make dinner tonight." She told her mother soothingly, pushing unkempt red hair from the woman's face, considering how her father was albino and the grandson of a Hyuuga branch member who married out of the family, she wasn't surprised that her mother's red hair and vibrant emerald eyes had paled to strawberry pink and washed out clover green in her. She didn't mind, her pink hair which had been the source of much teasing and pain as a child was now her pride and joy, true it made her very recognisable to enemy-nin, and it was an absolute pain to hide during night-missions but she liked the fact that it made her unique amidst the Ninja population. Her individuality had become important to her since Sasuke's betrayal, she refused to be just another face in the crowd, she would never be just another girl that could be picked up and ignored on a whim.

When she got that baka back into Konoha she was going to kick his ass for putting her through so much worry, then, she would thank him for making her into the woman she was today. Then order him to kiss and make-up with Naruto because anyone with a pair of eyes could see how those two were head over heels for each other – just too damn stubborn or stupid to realise.(3)

Harry stared and watched the goings on in Konoha with wide eyes as they made their way down the main street, clutching her hand and pointing out various things to her and asking questions, she was glad that he felt comfortable enough to ask these things of her because during the first few days he refused to speak beyond 'yes, thank you, no, I'm sorry'. Now he was like any other 4-year-old, curious about the world around him and wanting to know everything.

The Med-Nins, when they reached the hospital, were smitten at first sight, especially Hoshi-chan who was in their Child-Care section, Amaya had hidden behind her leg and timidly greeted her and Sakura could literally _see_ the brunette melt in front of her. It was amusing.

Harry squirmed uncomfortably and whimpered at the poking and prodding but Hoshi had to be thorough about his examination to make sure he wouldn't get sick from anything in the Hidden Countries and to make sure that no one in their country would get sick from something he had. He was given a vaccination against Iwa-Black-Spot there and then, it was akin to Chicken Pox but incredibly dangerous to children, adults had a more developed immune system and could combat it because their Chakra systems had finished growing, children were at risk because it acted akin to that of a cancer, growing within their still developing Chakra systems and poisoning their Tenketsu – making little black spots on their body that would eventually turn into boils and burst, releasing all their poisoned Chakra in one full blast. Killing the child with trauma and Chakra exhaustion combined, along with all their internal and vital organs suddenly becoming Chakra deprived.

The Medic gave Sakura a list of foods and substances he was allergic to (he was allergic to natto beans and a few perfumes popular amidst the noble women), along with a diet guideline to bring him up to the proper weight for his height and stop him from looking like an infant famine victim, she also made a passing comment about his Chakra being a funny colour and density, she summarised that it may change further as he got older so it would be an idea for him to keep coming back for check-ups every four to six months. Concerned, Sakura probed a little bit further.

Hoshi sighed and rubbed a hand through her hair, "Well, its not like there are any special properties from what I can tell so far but his Chakra seemed to be a darker shade of yellow(4) than a normal person's, denser as well. It's as if someone has.... dropped some grey paint into a yellow pot before stirring it around." She explained looking over to where the four-year-old in question was sucking on a raspberry flavoured lolly-pop and looking out of the window quietly, swinging his legs innocently as the adults conversed in the far corner.

"Will it harm him?" Sakura asked, forehead scrunched in worry.

"Oh my, no!" Hoshi exclaimed, waving her hands to try and placate the rosette haired Medic Nin, "He is producing it naturally; it's actually helping him to be honest. He would be _much_ more worse off if it hadn't been for his denser Chakra, he hasn't got nearly enough body mass, it's been preventing him from hypothermia and pneumonia for a while, not to mention nourishing him from what I can tell. He's been feeding off his own Chakra every once in a while." She explained ignoring the way Sakura's hands clenched into fists as she glared fit to kill at the floor. "At the moment, he has the Chakra capacity of someone a good two maybe three years older than himself, you may have to start teaching him some basic control exercises before he heads off to the Academy – if you decide to put him forward – because the first time he tries a Bunshin its going to go a bit wonky."

She nodded, "Alright. Thank you Hoshi-chan. I'll keep it all in mind."

The woman nodded with a bright smile, "Of course Sakura-chan, you just keep that little sweetie safe." She told her giving Amaya a big hug and pinching his cheek before bidding the two of them goodbye.

Sakura smiled as Harry took her hand, still sucking happily at his raspberry flavoured lolly, "_I told you it wouldn't be so bad Ama-chan._" She told the boy as they began to make their way towards the Hokage-tower.

"_Hochi was real nice. But her thingy was cold. I didn't like it much._" he told her seriously, speaking of the stethoscope she's pressed against his chest, making him flinch and try to squirm away with a whimper.

Sakura giggled as they stepped into the building, waving to Iruka-sensei and Shizune who were manning the Mission desk today as she made her way towards the stairs that would lead her to Tsunade-sama's office. "_Hopefully you won't have to have the thingy again._" She assured the little boy before picking him up and making her way through the corridors and stair-ways, he would have gotten tired if he'd walked himself and it was quite a distance for a child, it would have taken too long.

Hopefully things would go well with Tsunade-sama.

-

She needn't have worried.

Even though he was only four, it seemed as though Amaya had better luck with the ladies than Jiraiya-sama, he was also a smoother talker than the aged Toad Sannin.

The blonde Kage had instantly warmed to the small boy when he tugged at Sakura's skirt and asked who the '_pretty lady_' was, Sakura didn't know that the Slug Princess knew English but she wouldn't have put it past the woman to speed learn it while they were off collecting Harry from her Aunt, no doubt several of their new codes would include the language with their own, making it next to incomprehensible to anyone save a Konoha Nin who was high up on the ladder.

Sakura ended up playing translator to a few words as the two spoke briefly. About gardening.

Ino was going to love him.

It was safe to say Tsunade adored him when she summoned one of her younger Slugs to play with him while she and Sakura spoke, the boy instantly took to the smaller red and grey being and the two began to chat up a storm in their respective languages, not understanding a single thing the other was saying but in the way of all small children not caring anyway.

"Alright, I'll have a record drawn up for him. Do you know what his parents' names were?" The blonde woman asked as she began to make some notes with a brush.

"Potteru Jeimesu and Potteru Riri. From what I could piece together, there is a place that taught them how to control their Kekki Genkais on the outside, its up in the north and Petunia-basan alluded that there was a large group of them. She claimed they abandoned him though; maybe it was because of his darker Chakra, I'm not sure. Hoshi-san said that it would probably get darker as he grew older."

"She also neglected to say there was a strange Seal on his forehead. Looks to be made from Senjutsu to me though. Jiraiya can look at it when he returns with Naruto; it doesn't seem to be dangerous at the moment." The look of worry on Sakura's face was hard to ignore as the two looked over to the child who was laughing excitedly over the little Slug's ability to blow smoke – when he was older it looked as though Ageabura would be a fire affinity Summon, odd, since almost all the slugs were either water or earth based or had no element at all, like Katsuyu-sama.

Tsunade watched him with an odd expression on her face as the boy attempted to copy the red and grey slug's ability to breathe smoke to no avail, her lips quirked slightly when Ageabura made that odd gurgling squeaking sound that signified giggling from the younger slugs.

-

**Chapter two finito.**

(1) Hashi, translates to bridge, chopsticks and 'to burn' depending on the kanji. Gomen can have various endings to mean either please forgive me, my apologies or sorry; using the term Sumimasen you can apologise and say excuse me.

(2) In Japan communal bathing is quite common between friends and family, there are public bathhouses where you can go and soak with others as well. It is considered bad manners to get into the water when you're still soapy and extremely bad manners to get into the water if you haven't washed at all yet.

(3) SasuNaru, its hinted, but nothing is going to happen. By Japanese standards the concept of Nakama – or team/comrades – is extremely revered and respected. Hence why Naruto would do practically anything to get Sasuke back. However, to western culture the reactions and relationship between Naruto and Sasuke are quite questionable. Their actions and reactions do hint at Kishimoto perhaps having a hidden Yaoi possibility in his work.

(we already know he isn't adverse to it by having Naruto and Sasuke kiss, having Konohamaru's guyxguy and girlxgirl jutsus, it seems as though he doesn't mind crossdressers and gender bending either – Haku and Oiroke no jutsu. Besides, a number of Japanese historical myths and legends, not to mention cultures, are built on homosexuality, incest and orgies from what I've found, but I've only studied the minority of Japanese history and culture, this is not a review on all of it. Research it before you guys go pointing fingers if you plan to.)

(4) Yellow Chakra, in the manga – which is what i'm following – chakra is yellow. The animators were the ones who decided to make it blue.

_I own Ageabura – translated into 'Cooking Oil' – and Hoshi – which translates into 'Star' – as well as Rosemary and Takeshi._

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY STALKER OF STORIES!!! You can now legally drink in the U.K. so get your ass over here woman so I can buy you a drink ;D**


	3. Chapter 3

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

_When Petunia Catherin Dursley – nee Evans, awoke to her infant nephew on the porch, she did the only thing she could think of that would keep the Freaks happy and the boy as far away as possible. She writes to her estranged older sister Rosemary, who eloped to the Far East with a foreigner some years before Lily was invited to attend Hogwarts and asks her to take the boy in._

_Three years later, that letter finally reaches Rosemary Elizabeth Evans – in Konohagakure no Sato._

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Three**

-

When leaving the Hokage Tower the two of them had run into Team Ten on their way to pick up a new mission, Amaya had promptly hidden himself behind Sakura's legs shyly as he peeked up at the three teenagers and their teacher with large green eyes.

"Eh?" Ino blinked, staring down at the child, "Since when did you have a kid?" She demanded, goggling at Harry who retreated even further behind the pinkette nervously, not liking the way the blonde girl was looking at him, "He looks like a perfect mix of you and Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura growled at her, making Ino lean back in surprise, "He is my cousin Ino-pig. And he looks nothing like Sasuke!" She snapped, turning and picking the four-year-old up, glowering at her friend as the boy hid his face in her neck, "_Its alright Harii, Ino is just stupid. She's harmless really; none of them will ever hurt you. I promise._"

Amaya peeked out of her hair and studied the four people in front of him, the blonde girl looked a little embarrassed but she didn't _seem_ to be really mean, a bored looking boy was watching him critically with his hands in his pockets and a large brown haired boy was smiling warmly at him, his oddly patterned cheeks dimpling slightly, making Harry smile back at him out of reflex before shyly hiding himself again. The older one, their teacher, was smiling too, an odd expression on his face, he used to have a cigarette in his mouth but he'd quickly taken it out and stomped on it when he'd seen him, maybe he didn't like smoking around children?

"_Amaya, this is Ee-no Yah-man-kah,_" Sakura introduced, pointing to the blonde haired girl who waved and smiled at him,

"Hajimemashite!" She greeted chirpily.

"_Shee-kah-ma-roo Nah-rah._" The lazy looking boy just nodded, "_Cho-jee Ah-kee-mee-chee_," The brown haired boy smiled at him,

"Tabeka?" He asked, offering a packet of crisps to the child who smiled but shook his head.

"_And lastly, Ah-suu-mah Sah-roo-toe-bee, their teacher._ Everyone, this is my cousin Haruno Amaya, formerly Potteru Harii." Sakura introduced, taking Harry's hand and waving it to them, the child giggled slightly and pulled his hand away before hiding again.

"I didn't know your mom had a sibling." Chouji admitted.

"Neither did I. But apparently she has two younger sisters, Amaya is her youngest sister's son, unfortunately Lily-bachan died meaning he was given to her other sister Petunia, who isn't very nice at all." She bit out irritably as she ran her fingers through her cousin's hair, "Needless to say, he's staying with us now. Okaachan and I are taking him out shopping later today for some clothes and toys." She explained, nuzzling Harii's hair.

Ino clapped her hands excitedly, "I think no one has any missions tomorrow, why don't we have an official welcoming party? Kiba can bring his little cousin Minato to meet Amaya!"

Sakura shook her head, "Minato has flu, he won't be able to join us." She reminded her, working in the Hospital meant that when the young Inuzuka had fallen ill, his cousin flew into a panic and promptly rushed the youngster to her for a check up, dreading the worst. As far as she knew, Shino was still teasing him in his own special way about the incident. If Team 7 was known as the most broken of the Rookies, then Team 8 would be known as the one that stuck together the most.

Ino pouted, "Well, maybe some other time then?" She suggested brightly, making Sakura smile.

"Thanks Ino-pig."

"Well, it was nice seeing you again Sakura-kun, Amaya-chan, we should get going, there's a B-rank in there with our name on it." Asuma-sensei announced with an easy going grin on his face.

Sakura nodded and stepped aside, "It was nice seeing you again too Asuma-sensei. Give Kurenai-san our best and to pop-round if she has any concerns." It was early days, and quite by accident, but a scant few days before Sakura left to go and pick up Harry the Genjutsu Mistress dropped in at the Clinic and asked for a check up. Due to how sensitive most Jounin were of their Chakra systems and of their bodies, it came as no surprise that a Kunoichi of Kurenai's calibre could sense that something wasn't quite right with her body anymore, it was however a _great_ surprise when all the tests came back claiming that she was roughly about a week pregnant. By the son of a certain Monkey Summoning Kage. She was still in her first trimester but being a first time mother was a little nerve wracking – add to that, she couldn't take on any missions with half her Chakra being used to support and nurture the baby growing within her – the young Jounin was a little twitchy, though she hardly showed it.

Asuma blushed slightly and smiled awkwardly as the rest of Team Ten merely smiled knowingly as they waved and moved off into the tower.

"_Well Amaya-chan, let's go and pick up Okaachan. Can leave her on her own too long; never know what kind of trouble she'll get herself into._" The Chuunin announced, rubbing her nose against her little cousin's, prompting a giggle and a nod.

-

After meeting up with Kaede, the group of three moved through the Konoha market place looking for clothes, toys, furniture and books for the four-year-old, as well as foods he would probably recognise and trust enough to eat. But he was surprisingly compliant, the only time he really made any indication of desiring something was when he caught sight of a stag from one of the Nara herds, he had been absolutely enthralled by the animal when he caught sight of it, enough for Sakura to pick him up and introduce him to the beast who tried to chew on a strand of dark unruly hair. While she couldn't give him one of Shikamaru's deer – though she was fairly sure he wouldn't mind getting rid of the troublesome animals – she was able to find him a stuffed plushie stag and a large orange toad which reminded her so much of Naruto that she just couldn't resist.

Amaya ended up falling asleep, curled up in Sakura's arms a few hours in, several of the Shop keepers cooing in delight of the young child.

Sakura's father ended up showing up not long later, he gladly accepted the four-year-old and trailed along after his wife and daughter with a small indulgent little smile as they debated over little outfits, one or two more soft toys, Sakura wanted to get him a few rubber Kunai but Kaede wasn't too sure about him becoming a Shinobi at the moment, a number of books were bought as both his Kaede and Sakura-hime were avid book lovers, and if anyone caught Takeshi sneaking in a toy train no one commented.

Sakura giggled happily as they carefully set the four-year-old down on her bed, now they just had to decorate his room and get his picture taken for his records and then he would truly be her younger brother instead of just her cousin.

Kaede laughed and shook her head, "Alright Sakura-chan, you can paint his room, just... not pink, please?" She suggested teasingly with a broad smile when her daughter huffed and glowered at her. She knew that boys didn't like their rooms to be pink – listening to Kiba shouting at Naruto for painting his entire room pink while they were in the Academy was not only educational in terms of a boy's like and dislikes, but it also expanded her vocabulary in... surprising ways.

The young Chuunin decided to give him a nice warm room, one that could be gender neutral at first glance; she made copious use of her ability to walk on walls and the ceiling during the painting process. The walls were painted in a rich butter yellow colour with goldish-orange skirting boards, the ceiling a dark midnight blue with glow in the dark stars glued across it and even splatters of silver glitter to recreate the night sky as accurately as she could. Setting the clothes they'd picked up into the draws she then went about cutting the legs from the desk and the chair so they would be high enough for a little person like Amaya to get up into them to do his homework, then she set out his little futon with his deer, his toad and his rabbit plushie upon it and began to put away the other knick-knacks they'd picked out – Sakura put the rubber Kunai and Shuriken on the bookcase right in front of the basic Ninja scrolls for the Academy, she _wanted_ her Cousin to become a Shinobi but it was his choice, call her snobby but she didn't think she could _stand_ to watch Amaya waste his life away as a civilian doing little more than serving tables or whatever it was he finally chose to do.

"Sa...kura?" A small voice asked from the doorway, making the pinkette smile and turn.

"_What do you think Amaya-chan?_" She asked, sweeping him up into a hug, "_This is your room now. We just have to wait a while for the paint to dry before you can sleep in here._"

Green eyes widened, "_T-This is mine? For me?_" He squeaked in shock, staring around the bestest room he'd ever laid his eyes on – not even Dudley's was this good, sure it was smaller but it was way prettier and he even had his own special 'Harry' sized table and chair for him to do his drawing on!

"_Yup. This is _your_ room now Amaya-chan, you'll be able to sleep in it tomorrow but tonight you'll be with me again, why don't you pick out one of your toys to take to bed with you and then we'll go take a bath? How does that sound?_" the Chuunin asked placing her cousin down onto the floor.

Harry's beaming grin told her enough.

-

Four-year-old Harry James Potter, now Haruno Amaya was just... there were no words apart from 'deliriously happy' to describe his emotions right now.

Two and a half months ago he had been the Dursleys' slave in all but name, cooking, cleaning, gardening, things that no four-year-old should be doing in a normal family. Then Sakura-oneechan came and rescued him along with Kakashi-ojichan, they took him away from the Dursleys to a place where it was always sunny and bright and even if he couldn't understand the language, everyone was nice to him. The beautiful lady in the hat who liked bugs would sneak him sweets when she thought the pretty dark haired lady with the pig wasn't looking, he would always giggle because the pretty lady would wink and smile at him from where she was reading a scroll and pretending not to pay attention. He thought their names were Suenadie and Shesunay but he knew his accent was terrible so he kept calling them pretty and beautiful so he wouldn't upset them by getting their names wrong. Sakura-oneechan thought it was sweet and Kakashi-ojichan thought it was hilarious.

Ino-chan was nice, when she found out that he knew about flowers she took him to her house, he'd never seen so many pretty flowers before in his life, he also met Ino-chan's mother who was very pretty as well. Everyone in this country was really pretty and really nice.

Then there was some kind of party in a park – at least he thought it was a park, but he didn't think that parks had trees whose bark had been ripped and scarred by those knives and little metal star things. He met all of Sakura-oneechan's friends, save for two, the ones she liked best, he overheard someone saying that one of them was away learning things while the other had run off and left them because he wanted to get strong enough to kill someone. It scared him and made him sad that Sakura-oneechan's friend wanted to kill someone and decided to abandon her to do it, obviously he just wasn't a very good friend and he told her this, making the boy with the triangle marks on his cheeks laugh once someone had explained just what it was Amaya had said. Sakura-oneechan looked sad for a bit until he told her that he wasn't going to run off and no one else here was so she should forget about him and stay here with her real friends. It was a rather awkward moment that was broken when the blind boy with the funny white bathrobe started to clap, he had very long hair, was he pretending to be a girl?

He met Lee-san who he could tell _really_ liked Sakura-oneechan, and he did scare him at first but he became one of his favourite people very quickly, he was lots of fun and he was always nice. Out of all the group, the one person he liked the least had to have been the one in the bathrobe, he looked kinda mean and he got all nasty to the boy with the triangles on his cheeks when he said something, he looked like he was joking but the other boy still got angry. A fight nearly broke out when another blind person broke in, her voice was very quiet and she looked scared, Sakura-oneechan explained that her family was practically royalty in the village and that she was the daughter of the clan head, that made her a Princess right?

Wow, he knew a real life Princess!

Kakashi had to shake his head with a snort of laughter as he watched the Rookies interact with the four-year-old, he wasn't even a _tenth_ of Jiraiya's age and he was already having more luck with the ladies.

The Copy Ninja sat back beside the other Jounin, watching the exchange between the child and Hinata who instantly went bright red, the way the girls all cooed and visibly turned to mush – even Tenten – and the jaws of all the boys' dropped, some in disbelief, some in admiration. Sakura was trying not to laugh as she listened to her cousin scold Neji for being mean to the Princess, oh this was priceless, he was never going to live this down.

The rest of the party went fantastically well, Ino and Shino had stepped away form the main group to talk business – the Yamanka were interested in having the Aburame using their insects to help in their plant green houses and the Aburame were interested in some rare plants that some of their Kikai were particularly fond of – Sakura was chatting quietly with Chouji and Shikamaru while Harry followed Hinata around like a puppy much to Kiba and Neji's amusement and lastly, Tenten was using Lee for senbon practice while the Jounin lounged in the shade of a near-by tree each doing their own thing. Gai was doing push-ups on his fingertip, Kurenai and Asuma were snuggling and Kakashi was giggling over his little orange book.

There was a tiny bit of drama involving Akamaru suddenly appearing and terrifying Amaya into dragging Hinata behind Sakura, he was scared of dogs, especially big ones, after what Ripper did to him he didn't trust the animals. It took ten minutes for them to convince Harry that Akamaru wasn't going to hurt him, during that time the whole story of Aunt Marge and Ripper came out and both Sakura and Kiba looked murderous. But Akamaru was _very_ careful and stayed quiet; he laid down and let Amaya come to him, he didn't move or bark to do anything besides wag his tail and lick the boy's hand when it got a little too close to his mouth, Amaya giggled hesitantly but quickly withdrew his hand. It looked like it was going to take a while before the child felt comfortable around dogs again but Kiba and Akamaru were determined to practically adopt the four-year-old into the clan after hearing that story. (Sakura threatened to neuter them if they ever kidnapped her cousin and the two nodded, shifting themselves carefully to protect that particular area, Kurenai laughed from where she was under the tree.)

Harry slept like a log that night, thoroughly worn out by all the excitement.

-

It had been a week since he'd met all of the other Rookies, Sakura-oneechan was busy with Tsu-Na-De (he was finally getting the pronunciation of people's names and such right) and Shi-Zu-Ne training in being a doctor, Kaede-okaachan was working at the flower shop with Ino-chan's okaachan, Takeshi-Otousan was working on building someone's house, which meant one of the Rookies had to babysit him.

Team 8 were out on a retrieval mission in Kusa no Kuni, meaning there was no Hinata-hime or Kiba-oniichan or Shino-san, Team Ten were also on a Mission, an Escort one up to Waterfall Country so no Ino-chan or Chouji-nii. Which left...

Team Gai.

Neji wasn't all that enthusiastic about watching him, he was still a little miffed about being told off – about what he had no idea, he didn't speak the child's insanely complicated language, but he was well versed enough in body language to know that he was being scolded, by a _four-year-old_. Lee was ecstatic; he would be seeing the inside of his beautiful Sakura-chan's home and not only that! She trusted him enough to care for and protect her precious little cousin-now-younger-brother, this was surely a sign from the Kami's that their love was blossoming like the Konoha Lotus! Tenten didn't mind, she liked the kid but she would rather have been training, after all, kid games couldn't be all that fun and from what she saw he was a quiet and timid little thing so she doubted if he would be interested in a game of battle-tag. Plus, she kinda got the feeling Sakura would _kill_ her if they played that.

When they'd arrived, the four-year-old was sat quietly in his room practising his Hiragana carefully, he was making a mess of the ink but he was managing to turn out some half decent characters, especially considering how he had only been learning the language for just over two months. Tenten grinned at his room, she liked it, there were drawings up on the walls too that she recognised as being done by a child, most of them in a strange blue ink on oddly lined and textured paper but she recognised the things on it. A butterfly, a book, a family sat at the table with a small figure stood in the background looking sad, a woman with a smile – this one had red ink for the hair so she guessed it was either Kaede-san or his mother.

They left him to it, Tenten deciding to use the back garden to practice her senbon targeting skills, Lee could do his usual push-ups and sit ups and Neji could do whatever it was that Neji usually did but occasionally using his Byakugan to check on Amaya.

They had been lounging around for about an hour; Tenten unsealing a target to practice on while Lee did his push ups and sit ups, Neji meditated quietly on the porch, occasionally allowing himself to turn his Byakugan behind him into the house to check on the child. He didn't know how the four-year-old managed to sneak up on him but one moment he was pondering the deep and unexplainable tangles of Fate and the next he was aware of a little face peering at him from behind the door frame, large green eyes slightly wary as they observed him curiously.

He allowed himself to study the child without the boy being aware of the scrutiny, he was a tiny thing, he was supposed to be four-years-old but he looked closer to that of a two maybe a three-year-old, his hair was an unruly mess of dark ebony black, it would look very nice if the child allowed it to grow long – it would also probably lie flat, he refrained from smiling slightly. He had the classic Haruno green eyes, if a slightly darker and richer shade than Sakura's, he actually looked a fair bit like her if one took into account his not so high hair line and childish features. Anyone with eyes could see that he would be a very attractive young man when he grew up, Neji suppressed his smirk, another fangirl magnet, oh dear. Poor girls would never know what hit them if Sakura caught them.

But he did see the worrying evidence of neglect, a slightly pinched quality to his cheeks and body, his wrists were alarmingly thin add to that, his Byakugan had picked out some rather unpleasant looking scars on his right leg, scars that looked as though he had been mauled by an animal. No doubt that Ripper canine his Aunt set on him.

He watched as green eyes slid past him and watched each of his teammates with innocent curiosity and wariness, Neji turned to face the child noting how he flinched immediately and withdrew slightly, he offered the boy a smile and watched as he cautiously tipped forward, rather like a stray cat, and hesitantly made his way over.

"Good morning." He greeted softly, patting the wood beside him.

Amaya paused, biting his lower lip but obediently sat down, "W-where Sakura-neechan?" He asked, body tense as if preparing to dodge a blow and run away.

Neji sighed, he felt bad for the child but abuse was not uncommon in the Hidden Countries, he seemed to be handling it better than most though, "Sakura-san had training with the Hokage. She asked us to babysit you."

"Training?" He asked, not recognising the word(1).

"Practising to get better." He elaborated, knowing that the child would understand those words.

He was quiet for a time, watching Tenten throwing her senbon before, "Is Tenten-san training?" He asked curiously.

Neji smiled, bright child, "Yes. She likes training."

"Is it good?"

"Yes." He answered easily enough, watching from the corner of his eye as the boy watched her intently, she _looked_ like she was having fun, and she was hitting the middle of the red dot everytime.

Tenten glanced up, she had been feeling someone watching her for a while but assumed it was just Neji using his Byakugan, she didn't expect to see Amaya-chan watching her on the porch beside him. The two looked oddly at home together and she chuckled slightly, "Ohaiyo Amaya-chan." She greeted, watching as he smiled back, poor kid was probably bored of doing his letters all day. She paused thoughtfully, they needed something to keep him busy... Come to think of it, she'd seen the rubber kunai in his bedroom along with the basic scrolls, that meant that Sakura was hoping to put him in for the Ninja Academy when he was old enough... why not get a leg up on the competition?

"Hey Maya-chan, wanna learn how to throw senbon?" She asked, holding the needle up, she refrained from giggling when she saw the bemused look the child gave to Neji who simply smiled slightly and gestured with his hand to go and join her. Hesitantly, the dark haired boy made his way over to her, "Here, give me your hand." She told him, kneeling down and taking his bird-like little hand and gently arranging his fingers around the long sliver of metal. "This is called a Senbon, a needle."

"_Hari_? But my name. I'm Hari.(2)" He admitted, Tenten laughed, she'd heard that Sakura had changed his name when she brought him back so he might fit in better with his year-mates, and Haruno Harii just sounded wrong.

"Different meanings little one. Anyway, this is how you hold a senbon, they're used for lots of things especially in medicine, your sister Sakura likes medicine." She explained before taking out a needle of her own and casually throwing it, the needle embedded itself into the target with a thick '**tup**' sound.

Amaya gasped, his eyes going wide, he had barely seen her move!

The next ten minutes were dedicated to Tenten showing the child how to aim and then throw the needle without cutting himself; his first throw didn't go any further than four feet before landing in the grass. Tenten giggled at the affronted look on the child's face, maybe the senbon just wasn't his weapon, she was about to suggest they move onto throwing Kunai but the four-year-old was determined. He marched over and picked up the needle again and threw it, this time it went six feet before hitting the ground, again he retrieved and threw it again.

Harry Potter was a stubborn child, he had been taking care of himself his whole life because no one else would, even though Sakura and her parents had recently begun to try and fill that role for him he was still one of those children who was highly independent and he did not like failing. Failing meant no food and the cupboard, he was determined, he would get this right and he would get that stupid needle to hit the bullseye.

Tenten raised an eyebrow when she caught the rate of improvement the boy was making, the needle was inching its way along the ground towards the target a good ten feet away from them, she glanced over at Neji, at a complete loss for how to deal with this. The jackass merely smirked and shrugged a shoulder, she sighed, apparently she wasn't going to be getting her target back until the child hit it.

Oh well, it was time for a break anyway.

-

The scene that greeted Sakura when she finally got home from her training was one that she would treasure until she was too old to remember much of her life, it was well past lunchtime and her mother was still with Hanako, Ino's mum, and her father was still busy with that latest contract.

The pink haired Chuunin paused in the doorway of the kitchen and couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face, the garden was littered with different kinds of weaponry, a target had been painted onto a tree that had a number of kunai and senbon sticking into it and a second target with similar score marks, but it was the middle of the backgarden that had her smiling. Neji and Tenten were busy reading and working on sealing scrolls respectively, but sprawled out on the grass was Lee, he was just smiling and watching the clouds go by with Amaya curled up on his chest, absolutely exhausted and sleeping soundly, a proud little smile on his face. He'd worked hard to get the senbon right, then Ten-chan suggested kunai and he'd worked on that; on seeing his determination, Lee had launched into an impassioned speech about the Fires of Youth and being a Genius of Hardwork, Harry hadn't understood much of it, he spoke so quickly and so loudly that his limited understanding of the language had difficulties keeping up. But when the dark haired male offered to teach him things as well he'd jumped at the chance, and that was how he began to learn the beginnings of Taijutsu from the dark haired Chuunin.

It was tiring, but a lot more interesting than the curly-noodly letters he had to write out(3).

-

**Finito. Yes I made Amaya so cute it's criminal. XDD**

**(1) Training:** Remember, they are speaking in Japanese, a language Harry is unfamiliar with at the moment. But he's learning fast, like all small children do.

**(2) Hari:** means Needle, its also a girls' name 8D

**(3) Curly-noodly letters:** Hiragana is the curly loopy smooth writing, Katakana seems a little more straight edged and sharp and Kanji is technically Chinese and is hellishly complicated. My Japanese teacher used to come up with pictures to help us remember each hiragana, more than one of them was based on noodles. XDD I miss you Asuko-sensei. _Atashi wa Nihongo ga suki desu_. (She taught us the polite form more than the others; she said we needed manners, XDD she wasn't kidding.)

**Lots of chapters left to post, but I'm sticking to monthly updates right now. I learned my lesson from Black Birds – I just don't have the time or the resources to do a one every two weeks update. Not for everything I have. So we're doing the monthly ones.**

**See Distance Chapter 3 or my profile for what's going on in life right now. I can't be bothered to type it out again.**

Araceil

**PS: ... Yes. Amaya will eventually go to Hogwarts, and no, he won't be making friends with anyone (EVIL GRIN).**


	4. Chapter 4

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

_When Petunia Catherin Dursley – nee Evans, awoke to her infant nephew on the porch, she did the only thing she could think of that would keep the Freaks happy and the boy as far away as possible. She writes to her estranged older sister Rosemary, who eloped to the Far East with a foreigner some years before Lily was invited to attend Hogwarts and asks her to take the boy in._

_Three years later, that letter finally reaches Rosemary Elizabeth Evans – in Konohagakure no Sato._

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Four**

-

Green and brown stared.

They had been staring at each other for a good five minutes now, neither willing to look away or blink or admit defeat.

A clash of stubborn wills.

Sakura refrained from giggling where she was watching the face off, Kiba wasn't quite so discreet in his laughter as he burrowed his face against the nearest possible person – that being Tenten and her back – while Akamaru sat quite contentedly with his head in Hinata's lap and the little one's pup dozing against his stomach.

Kiba had thought it would be an idea to introduce his cousin Minato to Amaya, they were both the same age and Amaya had no friends yet while Minato tended to run wild to the degree that some parents were slightly disapproving of having their children associate with him. There was something to be said about a boy who would eat whatever creepy crawlies the others dared him to, of course Sakura or any of the other adults present would then promptly grab him and force him to hack up whatever it was he'd eaten but the rest of the Inuzuka Clan didn't bother. It was a learning experience, building up an immunity to sicknesses and preparing one's self for some really weird food when they became Ninja. Sakura told him in no uncertain terms that if she caught Amaya eating insects then it would be _Kiba_ who she put over her knee until his bum was red and raw, for a moment he thought about whether or not to make a kinky-innuendo about her spanking him, but then he remembered seeing her punch through a stone wall, and wisely kept his mouth shut. He preferred his ass unbroken thank you.

It had been a slow day for them all, Sakura had finished her morning training a few hours ago, Tenten couldn't go on missions because of her broken arm – a troublesome delivery mission to Snow and a run in with a few of Kazahana Dotou's old Nukenin Supporters caused it so now Lee, Neji and Gai-sensei were taking missions without her – and Team 8 were on a week downtime after their own Delivery mission. So they'd all decided to have a picnic in Training Ground 12 to introduce the kids.

Minato was the son of Kiba's uncle, Itsuki, and a Chuunin by the name of Suzuki; she had been the one to name him after the Fourth Hokage as without him she would not have survived the Third Shinobi War against Iwa. As such, she honoured his last wishes and treated Naruto fairly, she supported him in joining the Ninja Academy when so many were against it, she even defended him from those within the Clan who saw him solely as the Kyuubi. Unfortunately, the life of an Active Shinobi is dangerous, it was during the One Day War with Oto that she lost her life, her husband following not long behind during a B-rank mission that turned A-rank with the presence of a group of Kiri Nukenin, leaving a toddling Minato orphaned and sharing the same house as Kiba and his mother and sister.

He was young but he'd already bonded to one of the new puppies, a little black and tan thing with oddly spotted markings down its face and sides called Rai for his yellow eyes. Minato himself was a typical Inuzuka, he was young now but he was already exhibiting the traits of most Alpha males within the clan, his hair was a thick wild brown, his skin was tanned with a few scrapes from where he had been roughhousing with the dogs earlier in the morning, his eyes were dark brown, almost black, and very small, slightly slit like the rest of their clan, crimson fang markings on his cheeks standing out in sharp relief. He wore a pair of blue shorts and a grubby white top, his fingers already holding sharp nails. It was rather amusing to the teenagers as they watched, because it was obvious to them that Minato was rather confused. Confused over the fact that he was obviously the superior one here, he was taller, stronger, he had better weaponry in the form of his claws but the green eyed child in front of him did not look away and nor did he back down.

So they stared.

One of them would have to give up soon.

-

"Ah_, is for _Ame. Ih, _is for _Inu. Oo _is for_ Udon. Eh _is for... um..._" Amaya trailed off, trying to think of a word that fit with 'Eh'.

It had been a few days ago when Sakura ran into her old Academy teacher while at the Market, she'd asked him for some help in teaching Amaya the language, hence now why he was sat in the Academy with Iruka-sensei writing out his hiragana and listing words that he knew beginning with that symbol. Like Ame, which meant rain, Inu meant Dog, Udon was a kind of noodle, but now he was stuck on 'Eh'.

The teacher's smile was kind and patient as the child slogged on through his reading, he'd already made a lot of progress during the few months that he had been in the Hidden Countries, Iruka was also thinking about getting his fellow teacher Suzume-sensei into this, the poor boy was woefully unaware of most social norms that they didn't even think of anymore, he couldn't use chopsticks very well either. He only hoped that the Kunoichi-Teacher would be of help.

"Eh _is for _Eigakan?" He finally suggested, picking the cinema as opposed to other things that he wasn't sure of at the moment.

"Un, well done Amaya-chan. You're improving." He praised, smiling when the child blushed happily and smiled, even if he didn't understand some of the words he caught the undertone and responded. "Keep going, you will have to finish and then go onto Ka and Sa, after that we'll take a break."

Harry nodded and bent down to his writing in determination. He was going to learn this language, then he was going to go and beat Minato-san up for making fun of him because he couldn't talk properly.

-

Tsunade smiled as she glanced over her paperwork to where Ageabura and Amaya-chan were playing on the rug, she'd sent Sakura out on a D-rank mission with Team Gai – as Tenten's arm was still in a cast – to demolish an old apartment block on the edge of town. She knew it was Naruto's old apartment block, and normally, she wouldn't have touched it, but she guessed her more maternal instincts had been stirred with Amaya occasionally appearing in her office that she found herself looking a lot closer into Naruto's life.

What she found was cause for concern.

So, she decided to start doing something about it, something that her sensei had not been able to with the Council tying his hands over the matter, she was going to make things better for her Naruto. So now she was ordering his apartment block demolished, and then rebuilt, that done, she would hand over his key with a smile when he saw his new apartment. No more crappy window and door locks, no more damp floorboards and wall plaster, no more leaky plumbing, heck, he would actually have plumbing that _worked_, no more cold showers, no more food rotting because the electricity didn't work, no more freezing to death in winter. She was even thinking of suggesting to Iruka a D-rank mission to paint the entire place orange – but knowing him he would paint it a cheerful, neutral and non-eyebleeding colour.

A squeal of laughter had her jarring from her thoughts and chuckling as Ageabura slithered onto the four-year-old, bearing him to the ground where the child hugged the slug and burrowed his face into the slightly silky textured red and grey hide of the Summon(1).

She returned to her paperwork, it would be roughly another few months before Naruto returned from his training trip with Jiraiya-baka, hopefully by then Haruno-san would have finished with the apartment block. After all, he was the man who discovered a way to use his Doton affinity for completely non-Shinobi related activities, such as building things.

-

Sakura sighed; Amaya had been a bit difficult lately.

Objectively, she knew it would have happened sooner or later. The signs of abuse in Amaya were clear, now he was testing his boundaries with them, seeing how much he could get away with, how much he couldn't and what the punishments may have been.

So far it had only been little things, like not going to bed when he was told and instead staying up a bit later to read a book or practice his Hiragana – so far he had pushed it to the eight O'clock mark before her mother used The Voice on him, the child was in his bed so fast it looked like Kakashi-sensei's shunshin. Or sneaking an extra sweet when no one was looking – Sakura was a ninja, she had noticed – the only really big thing he'd done that got him grounded for the week had been getting into a fight with Minato-kun.

She didn't know how it had started, just that Amaya had been the one to throw the first punch, Kiba had explained it to her with relish, the two had really gone at each other, his cousin had been strong but little Amaya was fast and he was downright _vicious_. There had been teeth, claws/nails, hair pulling, punching, kicking, slapping, jabbing, pinching, the two boys had been bloodied, bruised and whimpering by the end of it but they both refused to cry. Sakura had gone over to the Inuzuka Clan to formally apologise but to her incredible surprise Tsume had laughed and waved it off, the members of the clan scrapped like that almost all of the time, in fact, Minato hadn't stopped grinning and talking about the green eyed child since the fight, showing off the marks the smaller boy had given him to all the other Clan children and puppies with pride. Kiba had added in a hushed tone that his older sister Hana was already plotting on getting the two 4-year-old's married when they were older, Sakura had choked and spluttered in shock. They were only _four-years-old!_

Her mother had still punished him and now her 'otouto' was in his room crying into his Toad plushie, Sakura had patched him up but didn't use any healing Jutsus, he needed to learn that fighting wasn't always the answer, and a little pain wouldn't kill him. Besides, he looked almost unbearably cute with the plasters and little bandages she'd wrapped him up in. The problem now was that because her mother had shouted at him and sent him to his room, he was now terrified that they would send him back to the Dursleys' or put him away in the cupboard like they had.

She honestly had no idea what to do, the rosette floundered outside her younger brother's room before a large hand landed on her shoulder, she looked up in surprise at her father.

"You go help your mother in the kitchen. I'll talk to him." The white haired man assured her, pressing a kiss onto her forehead before giving her a gentle nudge down the hall, "Go on Sakura-chan, we'll be fine."

She nodded hesitantly before making her way down the hall, glancing over her shoulder when she heard the door open and watched as her father carefully entered into the room. She could hear Amaya's breathing hitch in abject terror before the door closed behind Takeshi.

She sighed and made her way down the stairs, she supposed it was only far, she and her mother had bonded with Amaya quite well and practically hogged all of his attention when he wasn't trying to learn the language.

Her father deserved a chance to adopt the little hairball into his heart as well.

Dinner was a lot more cheerful after Takeshi came downstairs with a red faced, slightly tearful 4-year-old in his arms, a rather damp and sorry looking orange toad clenched in his little fist.

-

After explaining to Amaya that no matter what he did wrong they would never hate him, send him back to the Dursleys' or lock him in the cupboard, things went a _lot_ more smoothly in the Haruno household. The four-year-old was already fairly fluent in the spoken word, his Hiragana was slightly messy but improving leaps and bounds, he'd mastered the basics of Katakana and was beginning to learn some kanji, he could write full sentences without the kanji but the different forms had him confused, -te form as opposed to polite form made his head spin. So he tended to stick with polite form so he wouldn't upset anyone – the old ladies at the market adored him for it, they would always titter about how polite he was and how he would be a fine young man when he was older, then they would giggle and wonder about their granddaughters and Sakura-neechan would go pink and usher him away.

His week of being grounded over, when he took a step into the park he was suddenly tackled by Minato and licked up the side of his face, prompting a squeal and a '_Yeeeuuuurgh!_' from the four-year-old as he tried to squirm out from under his friend.

Sakura laughed and then the two ran riot with the other children, Minato introducing him to some of his cousins and a few of the other village children. Then they all scattered, playing Hide and Seek, Ninja style.

The rosette Chuunin turned to one of the mothers, she recognised her as a Genin from her last Chuunin exam – apparently she had decided to give up and raise her son properly. Asking the woman to keep an eye on her brother, the Chuunin made a quick dash to Tsunade-sama's office, her brother knew the way home, if she wasn't finished with her anatomy lesson before the children decided to head home then the Genin-woman she'd asked would escort him back to her house before carrying on her way. It was one of the things she loved about Konoha, everyone took care of everyone else.

It would only be later that she learned of Amaya's first piece of accidental magic.

It had been Minato's turn to Seek when it happened, the Inuzuka boy was making copious use of his clan's superior sense of smell to track everyone, he was crawling around on all fours, nose to the ground sniffing for them. Specifically for Amaya who – in his opinion – smelt the best because he was his friend.

One of the fresh Genin from the Academy had seen the spectacle he was making of himself and decided to have a little fun by kicking the four-year-old up the backside with a cruel snort of laughter, Minato had yelped as though he had been trodden on and shot to the side, snarling angrily at the older boy who merely smirked and started to bait him. Calling him dog-breath, savage, bitch-fucker and various other nasty things, Minato had been about to leap at the boy and give him a solid beating when his friend had launched himself out of the tree he had been hiding in and latched onto the Genin's head, wrenching his dark hair out at the roots and pounding little fists into his skull.

Stunned, Minato wasn't able to react in time when the Genin wrenched Amaya off and threw him roughly into a tree, only for the four-year-old to vanish in a loud CRACK of sound. Horrified that his friend had literally been beaten out of existence – how else could he have vanished like that? – Minato roared and launched himself at the Genin, no matter how fast or how skilled Minato may have been, or how much potential he may have had; the Genin was just that much better than him. The child had been lying on the floor, in too much pain to move when the disturbance brought the mothers down onto the little brat, Amaya leading them by the hand.

Apparently when he'd vanished, he's reappeared with the parents, skittering and rolling across the ground, realising where he was he grabbed the nearest woman and told her about the mean boy who was beating them up and dragged them towards the forest.

Needless to say the Genin was busted back to the Academy for remedial Self-Control and given a psychological analysis to determine whether or not he was actually worth the effort of training into a Shinobi.

When Sakura found out it had taken a lot of fast talking from Ino and Chouji to stop her from going to beat the crap out of the brat.

-

Following that horrible afternoon in the park, Sakura suggested that Amaya go into the Shinobi Day-Care system or join Minato at the Inuzuka Compound, Kaede hadn't been happy but she did see the advantage of it, with the new mouth to feed she had started working full time with Ino's mother at the flowershop, Takeshi was working on Naruto's new apartment block – sneakily giving him the top floor apartment, the best one of the lot – and Sakura was so busy with Tsunade-sama now that her lessons were really picking up that no one really had the time to be constantly watching the four-year-old as he became more secure in his surroundings and more adventurous as a result.

It was pretty much decided when Sakura spoke to Tsume over the matter; the boys were going to the Day Care where they could meet children their own age as well.

-

Amaya was confused, he wasn't too keen on the Day Care centre, there were lots of children all running around with those rubber Kunai and Shuriken and acting impolitely – Suzume-sensei had drilled him thoroughly on etiquette and what how he should act toward others, she had admitted that he should not expect the same consideration from others, like those in the Inuzuka clan who were closely connected to their canine companions and viewed the world in a different way to most people. That was true he decided as he watched Minato-chan throw himself into a fight between a scrappy looking red haired girl and a nasty looking black haired boy.

He looked at the Lady who was in charge of them, she was just watching the chaos with a careful eye as she bounced an infant on her knee, he guessed that she would only step in if things got too out of hand and one of them became endangered. Things were so different here compared to Privet Drive, if a fight ever broke out there parents would pull their children apart and then scream at each other to control their respective spawn. Petunia always seemed to win because her voice was the most shrill and piercing, making the children cry until their parents snarled and stalked off with the child in tow.

The youngest of the Haruno Clan bit his lip and decided against getting involved with the brawl between Minato and the other two, he could see a few children in the corner drawing and painting and he wanted to join in too.

Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to before Minato was shouting for his help and the green eyed boy answered without hesitation as he too flung himself into the conflict.

He wasn't going to abandon his first ever friend.

'specially not to Ako Kazumi!

-

Day Care had finally let out for the day and Rai, Minato and Amaya were running as fast as they could away from the building with Yoshino-chan, Takashi-kun and Sakumo-kun right beside them, the small group of five were fast becoming known as the Terrors of TreeTop Tots Day Care Centre. They'd pulled off a successful prank this afternoon and their carer Mitsumi-sensei was furious, they'd glued her to her seat and replaced all her Kunai with rubber ones before switching out the coffee with decaff and some kind of liquid that Amaya heard turned your pee blue.

Now they were running as fast as their little legs could carry them away from the scene of the crime.

Catching a flash of pink, Amaya veered off the main road, Minato skittering along after him along with Rai and the other three, "Sakura-nee!" The four-year-old squealed smacking into her legs, he would have knocked her over had she not noticed his approach and braced herself.

He didn't even notice the two strangers and Konohamaru-nii in his excitement.

Sakura looked down at her younger brother, "Amaya, what are you doing, running around?" She asked, ignoring her annoying pervert of a teammate for a moment.

Amaya's eyes widened, did he tell her about the prank? A glance at Minato told him that no, he shouldn't tell. "Yoshi-chan was gunna show us a new hiding place but then I saw you!" He exclaimed, practically oozing cuteness in the hopes it would stave off a lecture about pranking his teacher.

Judging from the look on her face, she hadn't bought it.

Thankfully for the children, one of the strangers chose this moment to speak up, "Err, Sakura-chan, who the heck is that?" He asked, pointing to the chibi attached to her leg.

Amaya jerked when he noticed the blonde and shied behind his sister's leg, Minato shifted beside him protectively, glaring at the loud mouth blonde while the rest of their group stared at the Shinobi with open awe – especially at Tsunade whom they recognised as the Godaime Hokage.

Sakura chuckled and placed a hand on her younger brother's head, "Naruto, this is Haruno Amaya, my younger brother. Amaya, this is Uzumaki Naruto, one of my teammates. You remember? I told you about him."

The four-year-old nodded hesitantly, staring at him with large green eyes as Naruto stared right back at him with large blue eyes.

"You... never told me you had a brother, Sakura-chan." He admitted, not looking away, his voice sounding somewhat betrayed.

Sakura shrugged a shoulder, "We only adopted him recently." She explained, making Naruto blink and look at her in surprise, she smiled reassuringly, "My mother had two younger sisters, Amaya here is my cousin, but when his mother died and our aunt didn't want to take him in, we went to bring him back here. Neither mum or I even knew he existed until we got Petunia-basan's letter."

"And he's _my_ bestfriend! You can't have him!" Minato shouted, grabbing the dark haired child tightly and glowering at Naruto, the blonde just blinking at the two in stunned surprise before grinning.

"Alright, enough with the emotional reunion." Tsunade announced, taking a step forward, "Kakashi."

A faint sound had everyone looking towards the silver haired Jounin as he snapped his new book shut and put it away, "It sure has been a while." He began, tension beginning to thicken the air as the two teenagers tensed and the children shuffled uncomfortably, "From here on out, you two are part of my team again." He announced seriously, giving them a steady measuring look. "Not as sensei and students, but as equals. Fellow Konoha Shinobi."

Amaya blinked as the white haired male withdrew two bells and twitched them around a little, making the silver objects jingle tauntingly, "Now... I want to see how much you've both grown. The rules are the same as when we first met." He added as Sakura and Naruto's faces hardened into determined smiles of anticipation.

"Attack as though you mean to kill, or you'll never stand a chance."

-

Amaya curled up against Ageabura watching the Konoha Gates from under one of the trees just within, Sakura-neechan had been gone for a while, she and Naruto went to go and rescue the Kazekage from some red moon people – Martians were red?

At first it had been him and Minato but the Inuzuka had soon grown bored with sitting and waiting, he was off exploring the rest of the Village and playing ninja tag with the others, Yoshino-chan was home sick with the flu so she couldn't come out to play either, meaning that it was just Amaya most days sitting out by the gate waiting for his sister. Then Ageabura showed up and the two would sit and talk while they waited, or they slept, fairly soon they became a common fixture at the gates whenever Amaya managed to escape from Day Care – a difficult task but one that was getting easier.

Kotetsu-san and Izumo-san thought it was hilarious whenever the Carer came rushing over to look for him and the four-year-old practically vanished, the poor woman had never passed the Genin exam and had given up by the time she reached thirteen to become a civilian. Amaya often scurried under their table to hide from her when she started to run over, the two Chuunin took great amusement in hiding the child away from her though they did occasionally give him up when they thought he had been there for too long. Izumo even flashed off to get the child some food on occasion when he'd skipped lunch to sit at the gates and wait.

It was a lazy afternoon, clouds drifted slowly across the sky and the sun beat down on a flawless Konoha summer day, Amaya and Ageabura were curled up and the former was drifting in and out of sleep in the sun.

Dimmly, the four-year-old was aware of someone approaching him; he peered up with sleepy green eyes and smiled, "Ohaiyo Tsuna-sama." He greeted quietly rubbing at his eyes as Ageabura squeaked a greeting to the blonde woman who knelt down in front of the twosome with a small smile of exasperation.

"I hear you've been running poor Mitsumi-sensei ragged looking for you." She told him, Amaya blushed slightly.

"I wanted to wait for Oneechan but she wouldn't let me." He defended himself, before peering at her anxiously, "She's not upset, is she?" He asked hesitantly.

"No, more irritated I think." The blonde woman assured him before ruffling his hair, "Come on, Sakura has to come and see me when she gets back from her mission, why don't you and Ageabura come and help me up in the Tower and we can wait together? How does that sound?" She asked, holding a red manicured hand out to the child.

Amaya stared at her uncomprehendingly until Ageabura gurgled and nudged him forward, jolting him out of his disbelief, he beamed up at her and grabbed her hand, "Yay!" He cheered before coughing as Ageabura blew smoke rings in his excitement.

Tsunade chuckled as she led the unusual pair up towards the tower, shooting a _Look_ at Kotetsu and Izumo just _daring_ them to make some smart arse comment. The two merely grinned and returned to their paperwork leaving the Slug Princess to think of what on earth she was going to do with the child and Slug – who seemed determined to Summon himself at every opportunity to see said child – once she got there.

Paperwork?

-

(1) I figure that Tsunade's slugs would have a kind of soft leathery hide as opposed to the slimy rubbery one that slugs normally have.

**Hope you liked it so far 8DD**

**Because I am really enjoying writing this, Amaya's so frickin' cute! But don't worry, he is relevant to the plot alterations that I have in mind for this.**

Araceil


	5. Chapter 5

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

_When Petunia Catherin Dursley – nee Evans, awoke to her infant nephew on the porch, she did the only thing she could think of that would keep the Freaks happy and the boy as far away as possible. She writes to her estranged older sister Rosemary, who eloped to the Far East with a foreigner some years before Lily was invited to attend Hogwarts and asks her to take the boy in._

_Three years later, that letter finally reaches Rosemary Elizabeth Evans – in Konohagakure no Sato._

-

**Just before you all get started, I'd like to remind the readers: **_THIS IS __**NOT**____A__ NARUTO/SAKUKA!!!!_

**-**

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Five**

**-**

When Sakura returned to Konoha, she half expected to see her brother standing at the Gates waiting for her, she told herself the slight twinge in her chest was simply homesickness when she didn't see him.

Kakashi-sensei was immediately rushed to the hospital while she, Naruto and the rest of Team Gai went to the Tower to go and give in their preliminary reports, tomorrow they would have to give it in full but at least they would be given time to clean up, eat and sleep. Sakura was already relishing the chance to go and soak in the tub and eat some real food, her mother would be making tempura and Yakitori sticks especially for her when they got back, maybe she should invite Naruto? Her mother did like him and it wasn't like he ate anything but Ramen when he could get away with it, no wonder he was the shortest of the boys in the Rookie eleven, in fact, only Gaara was shorter than Naruto.

"Hey Naruto," She spoke, causing the blonde to look at her in surprise, "My mum always makes a special 'welcome back' dinner after missions, you wanna join us? I figure you need to eat something _other_ than ramen and she likes you well enough." She teased him quickly before anyone could get the wrong idea about her sudden hospitality as they made their way through the corridors up towards Tsunade-sama's office.

"Er... sure! Thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned gleefully, oh yeah, dinner at Sakura-chan's! And her mum even liked him! They were so meant to be together(1)!

Raido was manning the secretary's desk this time, the brown haired Chuunin waved them in without glancing up from his book with a simple statement of, "She's free right now, watch out for the chibis though."

Exchanging looks of confusion, the remains of Team Kakashi and Team Gai knocked cautiously on the door and let themselves in, the office was neat and tidy, there was half a stack of paperwork left on the desk – this time in the Out Tray – and the Hokage herself could be seen on one of the sofas with a cup of hot tea slowly coaching a child through some of the words on her paperwork. She gave them a glance but gestured for them to remain quiet for a moment as she turned her attention back to the black fluff-ball sat on her knee, bent over one of the scrolls with an expression of utmost concentration scrunched on his little face.

"'_On b-behave _("Behalf, it means to do something for someone else at their request." Tsunade corrected,) _**behalf**__ of the Merchants' guide_ ("Guild." She corrected again,) _we rec-re_ adventure? ("Request, it means 'ask' but more politely.") _**request**__ access to the trade roots_ ("Routes, special paths that shopkeepers get their things from.") _routes between Konohagakure no Sato to Nami no Kunai_ ("Kuni." Tsunade corrected, giggling slightly now as the four-year-old struggled,) _under the aforeyesation_ ("Authorisation.") _**Authorisation**__ of the Fire Domino _(Here the blonde woman was giggling hard enough to nearly dislodge the child, "Daimyou, Daimyou." She corrected, glancing at the teenagers who were also fighting back smiles of amusement,) _**Daimyou**__ and the collective supp-supp-supposity?_ ("Support.") _**Support**__ of the Village Council._'"

Tsunade nodded, "Well done Amaya, now, what do you think it means, and should I agree to it?" She asked, smiling at the four-year-old as he leaned back to look at her, completely oblivious to the others in the room as he thought.

"... He wants to let people go walking down the shop-people's path so he can get things from the seaside and bring them back, the king-like person says he can and so do the old people who sit at the big table (Tsunade was chewing her tongue to stop herself from laughing at this point) but he's not the one who wants to walk, the people just asked him to ask you to let them." He said thoughtfully, "But it doesn't say what they want to bring back or how long they're gunna take."

Tsunade nodded, "Right, this is where paying attention in school is useful. Wave has lots of glass and fish and wood. Boats from all over the Hidden Countries go there with their things to sell so we can get special metals from Earth Country and Lightning Country, we can get silk and cotton from Sun Country, we can get clay and pottery from Wind. It takes about a week to go there and back if you're walking so, what do you think I should do?" She asked, watching the child and Naruto's faces screw up in concentration.

"Let them." Amaya decided, "But... send people with them to make sure they don't get lost or have someone steal their stuff. We need metal for lotsa things 'ccordin' to Ten-chan so its way imp-imp-special!" He decided, unable to say the word that he wanted.

Tsunade chuckled, "Do you agree Naruto?" She asked, looking over at the group, finally bringing Amaya's attention to them. The four-year-old shrieked, a high pitched sound that had the majority of them wincing as he scrambled out of the Hokage's lap and flung himself at his sister, wrapping his thin arms around her leg and burrowing his face into her thigh(2).

Naruto hummed as Sakura knelt down to hug her brother tightly and shower his face with kisses that he clumsily returned – Lee was gushing about the adorability of Youth, Neji looked vaguely uncomfortable and slightly jealous (he had never had such a reception from Hanabi at that age) and Tenten cooing slightly with a grin – he tilted his head from side to side thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but I would limit them to about three wagons, give metal, glass and cotton a priority, have at least six Chuunin or three Genin-teams guarding them, two Chuunin or a Genin Team and sensei for each wagon. Make sure none of Gatou's left over Nukenin get at the supplies." He suggested, Jiraiya had spent a lot of time pounding tactics and strategy into his head along with Chakra control, it was one of the reasons why he didn't have that many Jutsus under his belt, plus, the basics of Fuuinjutsu were complicated and he wasn't very gifted academically, they took a long time to get the hang of.

Tsunade chuckled, "Couldn't have done better myself." She announced before signing off on the scroll and filling in her conditions beneath the signature – she would also be nice, each Genin/Chuunin/Jounin would get the same pay as a D-rank mission, meaning that the overall cost would be equivalent to just over a C-ranked mission, but have the C-rank put onto their records. Hopefully the Jounin would take it as an opportunity to have their Genin learn how to work together with other teams to better their chances of getting this mission completed without failure or complication.

"Tsunade-sama," she looked up at the Hyuuga boy, "Why may I ask is Haruno-kun here and going through your paperwork? Surely some of this is for your eyes only?"

She smiled, "It is, and I completed those myself. Amaya has, unfortunately, been a bit of a handful for the Day Care Centre; he refused to remain within the building and constantly escaped out to the gate to wait for your return. Here, he is out of trouble, improving on his reading and helping me stay awake and off the Sake." She added, lifting her tea – like heck she was drinking in front of a four-year-old, Sakura AND Shizune would kill her. "Don't worry Neji-san, he has actually been a great help in organising things and reminding me of appointments, he definitely has Sakura's brains."

The two Harunos blushed at her praise and Ageabura – lounging in a sunny patch on the floor behind the sofa – blew another smoke ring.

"Now, how did things go with the Kazekage?"

-

Dinner at Sakura-chan's was great, the pink haired girl introduced him to her parents and Naruto blushed profusely when Kaede hugged him and then exclaimed over how he was all skin and bones. She ignored all traditional etiquette and encouraged him to make himself at home, Amaya showed him his room and all the really cool toys and his orange toady called Ribbet which Naruto thought was totally awesome.

He looked at all the pictures on the boy's walls with an odd expression, the ones from his time with the Dursleys were all grouped in a distant corner behind the door where they weren't looked at very often, and there were lots of his new family and the other Rookies and Tsunade, Naruto even spied one of him wearing that angry scowl from his Genin photo glaring at a stick figure with the same hair as Sasuke and Sakura smiling on his other side instead of in the middle. Apparently Amaya had already figured out who had left and made his sister cry – yes Naruto had heard about the little party from Lee and Neji and how the four-year-old had reacted to the news, it was cute but Naruto didn't agree with what was said.

Sakura let him take a peek into her room, which was really girly but had a whole load of scrolls on medical jutsus, anatomy and weapons on almost every surface.

After the quick tour in which he was also shown the bathroom and the toilets – Sakura told him that if he wanted to stay the night he would be sharing with Amaya, Naruto turned her down, he didn't want to be any more of an imposition to her family who had already been so nice to him, plus, Tsunade-baachan said she had a surprise waiting for him at his apartment – they sat down for dinner.

Naruto and Amaya ended up having a bit of a footsie match under the table while Kaede told him highly embarrassing stories bout Sakura in her youth that had the pink haired Chuunin bright red and shrieking at her laughing mother and father. Naruto didn't think he'd ever had such a nice meal, the food was good, the company was great and Kaede had loved the gift of flowers that Naruto had brought for her – Iruka told him that you should always bring a gift when going to someone's house to be polite, he didn't have the slightest idea of what to get so he ended up grabbing some flowers from the training grounds.

They had rice, smoked fish, Yakitori, BBQ ribs slathered with sauce, tempura dipped in a thick savoury batter, little dishes of sushi nigiri and hosomaki with wasabi paste and soy sauce, Naruto was allowed some of the sweet sake that Takeshi was pouring out – he only had the one, he wasn't too keen on the taste of it – and right at the very end, when Naruto was thinking that it had been one of the best meals he'd ever had, Kaede brought out a violently yellow lemon sugar pie, still warm from where she had left it in the oven. Naruto was almost sorry he had eaten so much of the woman's fantastic cooking but he did manage to find room for a decent sized wedge that was so sweet his eyes just about rolled up into the back of his head.

Amaya giggled as he acted out 'death by sugar' and pretended to slide to the floor, much to everyone's amusement.

By the time Naruto was offering to do the dishes, everyone was full, warm, happy and Amaya was fast asleep curled up on his father's lap, Takeshi's work roughened fingers threading through soft chocolaty-black hair.

Sakura simply grinned at him as she grabbed a dish cloth and began to do the drying.

-

Naruto's jaw dropped as he stared around his new apartment.

When he'd returned home after the _gorgeous_ meal with Sakura-chan's family, he had expected to find his usual old run down apartment and maybe some fresh groceries waiting for him on the table along with a cook-book telling him how to make something that wasn't Ramen, or some new equipment, or even information on his parents. Whatever.

He hadn't expected the brand spanking new apartment building, it was nice but not insanely expensive, if anything, it seemed a little understated but everything was clean, good quality, there was no graffiti on the walls, the plaster wasn't damp and crumbling, the carpet wasn't covered with suspicious stains, tears and patches of duct-tape. There was a selection of post boxes affixed to the wall, his having been painted bright orange and he couldn't help but grin at the sight of it amidst all the uniform grey, cracking it open he found a letter from Tsunade telling him what floor and room number his new apartment was.

He was on the sixth floor – the top one, flat 49.

All the other floors had about four apartments, save the first floor(3), the first floor having the Foyer, the pigeon holes and the bins for each apartment, there was even a specialised communal bin for broken, bent or damaged weaponry. From what his letter told him, all the weaponry thrown in there would be sorted into what can be remade into weapons grade material, tools and other odds and ends.

Hesitantly approaching his new apartment, Naruto stared at the plain dark wooden door in front of him, putting his key into the lock; he carefully pushed the door open and stepped in, his mouth opening in shock as he stared around.

It was a little larger than his previous apartment, cleaner too, the walls had been painted a warm sunshine yellow with pale blue and orange panelling, the floors were polished dark wood in the entry way, a set of fuzzy orange toad house-slippers waited for him on the floor along with a second pink set, a grey set, a blue set, a yellow set, a white set, a red set and an even smaller green set that he could only guess were meant for Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya and Amaya put into a little shoe-rack on his right hand side. He felt something grow warm in his stomach at the thought that someone had been thoughtful enough to get house slippers for his precious people – which had grown to include Amaya and Sakura's parents, despite the fact that they didn't have slippers yet, he would get a pair tomorrow especially for the two senior Harunos.

Walking in, the kitchen was first on his left, it was clean and bright, the fridge-freezer was humming with electricity, there were warm wooden cabinets with proper handles, the sink was shiny and set in front of a window lined with pale blue and yellow patterned curtains and plants lining the window sill, the worktops were a pale beige colour with a chopping board, knife collection, a kettle, a toaster, even a blender, all set out and shiny new. There was a circular table with five seats around it in the middle of the kitchen, little placemats already set up with coasters for any drinks; each of the seats had their own orange cushion so his guests could be comfortable. He looked in the cabinets under the worktops and found some new glasses and mugs and plates, but he also found his old things as well, carefully cleaned and some of them repaired and repainted, put away all neat and tidy. He could feel his eyes prickling as he closed the cabinets and moved through the apartment.

Opposite the kitchen was a small storage room with a washer and a drier hooked up within, there were still more plants in here, the kind that enjoyed the dark and the damp, there were hooks on the wall and a new coat waiting for him, it was orange with black flames on the hem and the words '_Future Hokage_' written across the back of them bringing a huge smile to his face.

Beside the storage room was Naruto's new bedroom, he decided to save that for last and take a look at the living room area, the carpet in here was thick and soft, it was a warm dark green colour to compliment the terracotta shade of the walls, the sofas were a warm dusty red colour with green cushions, the curtains were dark rich and green, leading out onto a balcony with only a partial railing and again, a lot more plants, the house just outside had a reinforced roof, a perfect landing point for a Shinobi who had to leave the house quickly. There was a working TV and a large bookcase full of books and scrolls of various techniques, the walls had photograph frames in the occasional place around the room, there was a picture of Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura, all stood in front of the hospital waving for the camera, Team 10 at Chouji's favourite BBQ place, Team 8 at what looked like Hinata's 15th birthday, Team Gai in a training ground, all of them looking completely exhausted but still brimming with 'the power of youth', the Konohamaru corps grinning toothily at the camera, stood in exaggerated poses, Konoha as a whole, Iruka and Kakashi with the former elbowing the latter who was giggling over his book, and a few pictures from a long time past. Naruto aged six sitting on the Sandaime's lap wearing his hat, Jiraiya holding him as an infant trying to convince him to drink from a bottle, a young Tsunade with her younger brother – damn, they did look alike – Jiraiya trying to give the Yondaime a noogie, Naruto and Iruka at Ichiraku Ramen, Sakura and Ino as children, arm in arm and grinning toothily at the camera, there were even pictures of Sasuke and his brother Itachi, they made him smile but at the same time, they made his stomach churn.

He turned away from the photographs, a glass coffee table in the middle of the room had another potted plant whom he recognised as Ukki-kun – the plant he'd given to Kakashi-sensei when he'd left with expressed orders to take care of him, Naruto didn't know that Ukki-kun nearly died and Kakashi palmed it off onto Iruka in a panic. Beside Ukki-kun was an envelope with his name written on it.

Cracking it open, the blonde read through the lines of text with wide, disbelieving eyes, both Gaara, Tsunade, Koyuki-hime, and Tazuna had contributed to his new collection of books, it had Jutsus, techniques, stories, sealing techniques, all of them given to him, nothing too powerful or too exclusive to that particular country. They all wished him a happy birthday and told him that they wanted to hear from him again, that they missed him while he was away.

Naruto sat down heavily on his new couch, then he started to laugh.

He hadn't even seen his bedroom or his bathroom yet.

-

The next morning, Sakura and Naruto went to go and give Tsunade their full report, Amaya tottered along after them but upon discovering that the adults were talking about _serious_ business, he hid himself away in a corner of the Hokage's library to work on his Kanji – he was improving leaps and bounds, he already had a reading age of someone aged six but he wanted to be able to read properly, he wasn't used to not being able to understand the written word, he'd taught himself to read and write English so he wasn't going to let the noodly language defeat him.

He looked up when some old lady came in, he recognised her as one of the Elder people that liked to tell Tsuna-chan what to do, he wasn't quite sure he liked that but he knew that they were only making suggestions, and Tsuna-chan could say no if she wanted to.

He got to his feet and scurried over, "Utatane-sama," He greeted giving her a clumsy bow, "Tsunade-sama is busy right now, she's in an imp-special debriefing." He explained, yet again stumbling over the word 'important'.

The elderly woman nodded at him, she seemed harsh to the others but she was nice to him, maybe it was because she had grandchildren his age – it was – and knew he was just trying to do as best he could to keep everyone happy. "I am aware of this; however, it's quite important that I speak with her before she decides anything concrete."

Amaya bit his lip, shuffling in indecision, "She... she's out on the balcony. I don't think she's finished yet though." He admitted, pointing towards the large windows.

Koharu nodded, patting the four-year-old on the head, deciding to pause for a short moment, "How are you handling your letters?" She asked.

He nodded, "Kanji is hard, but I'm getting through them. Iruka-sensei says I can read as good as a 6-year-old now." He exclaimed proudly.

Koharu smiled, "Well done Haruno-san, keep it up and I'm sure you will be reading as well as a twelve-year-old." She chuckled as the child beamed in delight and swiftly ran over to get back to work.

Now, if only her own grandchildren were so motivated to better themselves her life would be as close to perfect as she had ever desired.

-

Amaya looked up curiously when another old guy came in, this time, he didn't get up, in fact he shied away and moved into a tiny ball in the corner of the bookcase.

That guy made every instinct he had say: '_dangerous, bad, avoid_'.

He watched with narrowed wary green eyes as the old man went into the meeting room with Tsuna-chan and the other two old people, his shadows flickering into positions outside to protect him, one of them looking carefully at him but Amaya just returned the look. He knew that if one of them tried to hurt him then Sakura-neechan would hit them really hard and make 'em cry for him.

Relaxing ever so slightly with the knowledge that his sister and Tsuna-chan would protect him, or at least avenge him, the four-year-old uncurled his legs and returned to his Kanji practice.

Ignoring the masked people who watched him warily.

He was so absorbed in his letter work that the time passed by really quickly and when he looked up Tsunade was sitting behind her desk massaging her temples, putting his things aside; he got up and hesitantly approached her. She looked angry and tired and in pain, like she had a headache.

"Would you like some tea?" He asked softly, he could make tea, and she looked like she needed a cup.

The blonde woman looked up in surprise before smiling slightly, at last, someone useful, "Yes, thank you Amaya-chan, just remember to be careful with the hot water." She warned, she knew she didn't have to but she felt like she had to say it anyway. He was only four but he could already make a better cup of tea than her, unsurprising, she _was_ an alcoholic.

The four-year-old nodded and scurried off, he would make dig out those things that the nice purple haired lady gave him last time she was there, Dango he thought she called them, she let him have one once and they were quite nice. He waved cheerfully at Shizune who was looking a little anxious as she sorted through some stacks of paper, maybe he would make some for her too?

"Would you like some tea Shizune-chan?" He asked, the dark haired woman smiled but shook her head,

"No I'm alright Amaya-chan. You carry on."

Nodding, he jogged past the lounge, waving at the nice purple haired lady who grinned and waved back to the surprise of the other people in the room; he found the kitchen and began his preparation to make the best jasmine tea he could. With nice warm dango to go with it as well. Fixing up a pot of tea and gathering up a few cups – because Aunt Petunia always liked having extra cups in case of company and she wasn't nearly as popular as Tsunade – he warmed up the plate of dango and put it on the tray along with the pot and the mugs, he also put a little jug of milk and a pot of sugar in case people liked it sweetened before lifting up the heavy tray and tottering off back towards the office, spilling some spots of milk and tea onto the flower patterned tray.

Then he ran into a bit of an obstacle... the door.

His hands were full and he couldn't put the tray down or he would spill some more, the four-year-old's arms trembled slightly with the strain of the tray before an armoured hand gently pushed the door open, jumping – and spilling a little more tea – he looked up into a cat masked face and squeaked slightly in alarm.

"Hey, calm down. I don't bite." The masked man soothed, "Go on." He told the child, Amaya somehow got the feeling he was smiling behind that mask.

Blinking, the four-year-old scurried into the room and over to Tsunade who smiled at the sight of the green eyed child tottering along with the wide tray and trying desperately not to spill any more of the liquid – there wasn't much but it was enough to get him a smack from Aunt Petunia if he'd ever spilt that much at Privet Drive.

The blonde woman quickly accepted the tray before he dropped it and set it on her desk, ruffling his hair as he rubbed at his arms, "Thank you Amaya." The four-year-old beamed at her before looking at the masked man and back to her, understanding without being told that they needed to talk adult-stuff, he made his way back to his writing to take it into another room – the lounge most likely – before looking seriously at Mr Mask.

"Don't be mean. She's got a headache and don't you make it worse or Sakura-neechan'll bap you over the head." He warned before marching out.

Tenzou arched an eyebrow and tried not to laugh, "Cute kid."

-

(1) THIS IS NOT A NARUTO/SAKURA!! It never will be, but Naruto still has a crush on her. I'm sticking as true to canon as possible while twisting it horrifically to my own ends 8DD

(2) Yes he's only four but Sakura isn't the tallest of women (couple of inches shorter than me) and if my nephew can reach just above my knee at three, I think Amaya may be able to manage at four, especially with Sakura.

(3) First Floor: In Japan, they don't have ground-floors. It starts at first floor and carries on going, which y'know makes a heck of a lot of sense to me so I don't use Ground Floor anymore.

-

**Review pleasums.**

Araceil

**P.S.: Due to a few things in Real Life, such as catching flu, getting a severe ear infection and then my department at work spazzing out over the snow and Network Rail being dicks I haven't had the time to write the next chapters of Distance or Black Birds. So there are only updates for A Mile in Your Eyes, Lightning on the Wave and Resonance. **

**I'm really really sorry. **


	6. Chapter 6

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Six**

-

Last Time:

_Naruto returns from his long journey with Jiraiya. He and Sakura are reunited and then forced to leave Konoha to rescue their friend Gaara. Upon their return, Sakura and Amaya invited Naruto into their home for dinner, after which Naruto returns to his new Apartment._

_Information retrieved from Sasori is turned into a mission and assigned to Team Kakashi against requests/demands of the Village Council – as a concession, Danzou and the Elders have an elite member of ANBU take Kakashi's place as Team Leader while he is hospitalised, but a mysterious fourth member casts an unpleasant shadow over the mission._

-

Okaasan wasn't happy.

Amaya watched the red haired woman move slowly through the kitchen, she chewed her bottom lip and tugged at a rebellious strand of hair, she rolled her shoulders and her little finger stuck out more than usual. He'd learned to watch his relatives for any negative signs, his Aunt didn't hit him much, just a smack or a slap every now and again when he stepped out of line, his uncle didn't touch him at all if he could help it – too afraid of getting 'freak' on him – but there were times when his temper got the better of him and Amaya was stuck with black and green bruises. Dudley had no problem attacking him when he was bored or just feeling mean or angry or even just hungry, so Amaya learned to observe others closely to read their moods and emotions. It was how he knew when to go and make tea for Tsuna-chan and Shizu-chan, when he needed to leave the office so she could talk to the Mask people in private – he brought them tea too – and when he knew to move away from Minato so he couldn't pounce and lick his face again. He was going through a phase of copying everything he'd seen the family Nin dogs do. Even peeing in public.

Neechan was out on a mission.

She was going to meet the man who made her teammate leave.

Kaasan and Tousan were really worried about her; they were scared that she would get hurt or not come back – of course she was going to come back, where would she go if she wasn't coming back? Sakura-neechan wouldn't leave him. And anyway, it wasn't as if she would die. Would she?

Amaya pursed his lips as he noticed kaasan making her third wipe down of the kitchen surfaces, her fingers all wrinkled now from the damp cloth. Scurrying into his room, the dark haired child got his sheets of paper and brushes and ink and rushed into the kitchen, hopping up onto the table and set himself up, ignoring the curious look on his Kaasan's face.

He smiled up at her, "You wanna do some drawing with me?" he asked sweetly, Kaede blinked and stared at her son before smiling softly and sitting down beside him.

"Pass me a sheet of paper too Amaya-chan. Let's see who can draw the best kitty."

-

Ninja Tag was really awesome.

Amaya laughed as he rolled under Yoshino-chan's wild lunge and jumped to his feet. It felt like ages since he'd been allowed to play like this, with Sakura-neechan out of the village, his parents had been a little clingy, Kaede especially, and he hadn't had much of a chance to go out and play with his friends.

The only thing that would make this day even better was if Minato-chan was allowed out to play, unfortunately, he was going through a phase of not wearing clothes on top of his whole 'acting like a nin-dog' thing. His cousin Hana-san refused to let him out of the house without him putting his clothes on and _keeping_ them on.

It was a shame really.

Minato would have really liked playing Ninja Tag.

-

Haruno Sakura.

Hatake Kakashi.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Team 7.

Amaya chewed his bottom lip from where he was sequestered within the Hokage's library again, he wanted to know why his Neechan was gone so much and who Uchiha Sasuke was. Was he her boyfriend? Well he wasn't a very good one if he was!

So here he was, sneaking around the library looking for information on his sister's ex-boyfriend.

He shot a glower at the false wall at the far end of the library, he knew there were going to be really important documents and stuff behind it and he just bet that everything he wanted to know was there too but you needed Tsuna-chan's permission to go in there because only she could open the door.

He stomped his foot unhappily, she was an adult, she wasn't going to let him look at secret stuff, they thought he couldn't keep his mouth shut but they were _wrong!_ He could so keep a secret! He just wanted to know who Uchiha Sasuke was and why he kept making his Neechan cry and make him stop!

Amaya didn't like seeing Neechan cry, her cheeks would go all red and her pretty face would crumple and she would shake and be all quiet and unresponsive.

He wanted behind that wall and he wanted behind it _**NOW!**_

The four-year-old stamped his foot again in a fit of fury before squeaking when he felt the most god-awful sensation ever, the same one that happened when that Genin tried to throw him into a tree. It felt like his whole body was being squished and pulled through a straw by his brain and suddenly his ears were popping rather painfully as he plopped onto the floor in a dark quiet room smelling of old paper and charcoal.

He whimpered and rubbed at his ears, peering through watering eyes at his dusty surroundings, blinking when he realised the enormity of what he'd just done.

He was behind the false wall!

The four-year-old refrained from cheering, but only just, as he scrambled to his feet and raced through the room, thankfully all the scrolls were sorted alphabetically, he just had to find the ones beginning with 'U'.

Aha!

_**UCHIHA**_

He grabbed the first scroll and unrolled it, peering at the name 'Uchiha Mikoto' Jounin rank, dead and a girl, not the one he wanted to look at then. Clumsy little finger ran down each of the names on the scrolls – having put Miss Mikoto's back – he eventually found Uchiha Sasuke right beside Uchiha Itachi.

Taking the scroll, he unfurled it across the floor so he could see it better, Biting his lips, the four year old stumbled through the scroll as best he could.

"Name is Uchiha Sasuke, younger brother of Uchiha Itachi. Currently Genin rank but classified a B-ranked Missing Nin." The child read carefully before moving onto the other information, his eyes widening as he read through, he understood a lot of things for a child his age, concepts that most children weren't introduced until they were older, like the concept of death – he understood what death was. His aunt had been excessively thorough and cruel when he dared to ask the question of where his parents were and what happened to them, but knowing that Sasuke's older brother had killed the _**entire**_ family, mum, dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandma, grandpa, great aunt, great uncle, their children and grandchildren, everyone, just because he wanted to see if he could... it was horrifying, no wonder Sasuke had left Konoha to try and get strong enough to kill him.

But it didn't excuse him from making Neechan cry, his mind stubbornly asserted, and it was right. He didn't _**have**_ to leave Konoha to get stronger, if his brother was strong enough in the village why did he feel the need to leave?

Amaya carefully rolled the scroll up and put it back, before taking down Itachi's scroll.

This one was different though.

It had funny doodles on the page that he didn't understand; he did understand the words under it.

_**CLASSIFIED BY ORDER OF THE SANDAIME HOKAGE AND COUNCIL OF ELDERS**_

Which meant that the funny drawing was a Seal, like Tsuna-chan told him, you had to have the right kind of blood to open it and Amaya didn't want to bleed because he didn't think that the scroll would open for him if he did. But, he could see that there was a file number underneath the seal.

Putting the scroll back the four-year-old scampered over to the large filing cabinet and tugged on the handles, locked, his frustration boiled under the skin. Why was everyone so secretive about Itachi!!? Was he so horrible that they didn't want anyone to know what he'd done!? Or was there something going on here that they didn't want anyone to know?!

Amaya wanted to know!

Sasuke was making his Neechan cry because he wanted to kill Itachi!

He would keep trying to kill his brother and that would keep making his sister cry!

All roads led back to Itachi and it was making Sakura-neechan cry!!

He stamped his foot again, half expecting the filing cabinet to pop open like he'd popped into the room and away from the bully. But when nothing happened he gave the thing an angry slap and a sharp swear-word that would make Kaede-kaasan wash his mouth out with the soap. The slap had the cabinet popping open though; the draws shot out so quickly that he squealed and fell backwards trying to avoid them. Pushing himself up, green eyes quickly scanned the little tabs to see where the one he needed was, UI-012110 – Psychological evaluation.

Psychological Evaluation? What was that?

Flipping it open quickly – because he didn't know if anyone heard him – he read through the file with difficulty, there were lots of long complicated words he didn't understand and Kanji he'd never seen before, but he got the general idea of it.

Uchiha Itachi showed a whole lot of loyalty to the Sandaime and to the Village, he loved his brother dearly and he was a patriot. He felt betrayed by his clan and very hurt.

Now he was confused.

Closing the folder he put it back in the filing cabinet where he found it before gently pushing the thing shut, he made his way slowly back to the door before realising... he couldn't get out.

Green eyes widened, oh no, what if he was forgotten in here and no one ever found him and he died and got eaten by rats and a hundred years from now they would find his bones?! Or worse. What if Tsuna-chan found him?!

He whimpered and pushed against the wall desperately, tears beginning to run down his cheeks.

What was worse, he needed the bathroom too.

-

Amaya was in lots and lots of trouble.

Tsuna-chan did find him, but only because she'd heard him crying and banging on the wall, a split second after opening the door she had a hysterically tearful four-year-old in her arms and partially strangling her with his grip around her neck. He had managed to blubber out the whole story about how he heard some of the shopkeepers talking and remembered Sakura's mission and what he'd heard from the Rookies and how he'd gone looking for information on Sasuke before getting really angry that he couldn't find it and '_popping_' behind the wall where he found it and looked at Itachi's psych-profile but couldn't get out and got really, really scared that the only thing anyone would find when they finally did get to him were bones and the shiny button he had in his pocket.

Tsunade had been alternatively pissed off, amused, proud and a little curious about the four-year-old's escapade, but that didn't excuse him from reading Classified material, his mother was informed and Amaya got the scolding of a life-time and a spanked bum to go with it. She was going to ground him for about six months before Tsunade stepped in and suggested that he made himself useful, he would still be welcome to help her with organising her paperwork but the library would be off limits until he could regain her trust, but he could also help the other Rookies, Chouji's mother was always looking for an extra hand at the restaurant and the Inuzuka could make good use of him in the Kennels wouldn't she think so? Of course she did.

And that was how it came to be.

On Monday afternoons after Day Care, he would help at the Akimichi's BBQ restaurant doing the washing up until seven at which point he went home, had a bath and went to bed – Mrs Akimichi was always trying to fatten him up so he ate plenty enough as it was. On Tuesday afternoons, again after Day Care, he helped to care for the Nara deer herds, putting out extra feed for them, making sure there was enough water and cleaning up the droppings – sometimes he even got to pet them or brush one of the smaller ones. Wednesday he helped at the Hokage's office, feeling very small and very stupid as he went throughout the day with his head bowed, doing as he was told and keeping quiet unless someone spoke to him first. Thursdays he helped at Tenten's weapon shop, he wasn't allowed to touch any of them but his maths was good enough to run the till and he swept the floor and sometimes helped her dad in the forge by fetching him tools and metal ore. On the Friday he helped his Kaasan and Hanako-san at the flower shop, he liked flowers but the number of squeally giggly girls who came in made him uncomfortable and a little scared. And finally, all day Saturday, he helped at the Inuzuka Kennels and Vet surgery, he made sure everything was clean and the animals fed and took them for long walks through Konoha, he even got to help Hana-san when she had to operate on one of the dogs, the blood made him ill and he nearly cried when she had to cut the poor thing open to help it. The dog got better and from that point on Amaya was fascinated, he asked his kaasan if it was alright if he got some books from the library even though he was technically grounded and she'd let him, only raising an eyebrow when she saw the titles. It looked as though they had another aspiring doctor in the family.

And so the days passed.

He learned how to improve on his cooking from Mrs Akimichi and how to choose the best ingredients and herbs for food, he learned how to play Shougi from Shikamaru's dad Shikaku-san, Tsunade taught him about a lot of rules and laws around the village so he would know what he could and couldn't do, Tenten taught him how to throw Kunai and Shuriken – but he was still determined to master Senbon, the needles looked like they could be really useful for things other than throwing – her dad also taught him how to tell good metal from bad metal and how to keep his weapons in good condition with a hair-splitting edge. In the flower shop he learned all the names of the different flowers, their meanings and how to arrange them nicely, he didn't mind that it was a really girly thing to do, he liked pretty things and he liked making things pretty, Ino-chan and Hanako-san also taught him a few other tricks that he didn't quite understand yet – he would when he got older – while Inoichi improved on his ability to read body language and facial expressions. He also taught him how to play poker. At the kennels, he improved on his knowledge of medicine and Hana-neesan even offered to teach him how to help make the dogs feel better if they got hurt.

So in all, his knowledge was increasing in a whole lot of fields, but one thing kept gnawing at his mind.

If Uchiha Itachi was so loyal to the Sandaime and his brother... why did he kill the Uchiha clan and turn rogue?

-

Tsunade blinked and stared at the four-nearly-five-year-old shuffling uncomfortably in front of her.

"Could you repeat that Amaya-chan?" She asked him politely, her mind not quite being able to absorb what the boy just asked her.

Little milk-teeth nipped at a pink bottom lip before the youngest Haruno took a deep breath and asked again, "If Itachi was so loyal to the Sandaime Hokage, why'd he kill his Clan?"

"Why do you think Itachi was loyal to the Sandaime?" She asked, brows creasing in confusion, had the child stumbled across something she hadn't seen during his 'adventure' into the Forbidden Library?

"His psycho-value." Here, Tsunade refrained from snorting but only out of sheer force of will and the knowledge that this subject was very serious, "It said that he was really, really, _**really**_ loyal to the Sandaime and that he really loved his little brother but the Clan made him sad and hurt his feelings. But there was this thing on his scroll, it was ordered sealed by the Sandaime, didn't you say that only really important Ninja with really dangerous and _**really, **__**really**__**, **__**REALLY**_ secret missions had that done?"

Tsunade's head reeled, she had said that, she knew that, all S-ranked missions were Sealed and locked within the Forbidden Library, the record of that S-ranked mission would never be recorded on the Ninja's official, _official_ file, but their full file – which was kept within the library – had everything from a childhood case of the measles to the name of their first imaginary friend to the first person they ever killed and then the last Jutsu they ever used. It was a full and complete file and only those who had been on SS-ranked missions had _those_ files sealed.

Missing Nins had their full files disclosed to the Oinin-department so that the hunters knew what they were aiming for and the best way to go about killing and capturing them. The only reason they wouldn't have that file is if..... Is if her Sensei didn't want Itachi caught..... but that didn't make any sense! Was he too dangerous for the Hunter Nin? It was a distinct possibility, but Orochimaru's file had been disclosed. Though... there was hearsay throughout Jiraiya's spy-ring that Itachi had defeated Orochimaru and removed his hand during their time as partners within Akatsuki without even moving, doing little more than trapping the Serpent Sannin in a Genjutsu.

Orochimaru always hated Genjutsu. They were his one true weakness along with Chakra Control.

Out of all three of them, his Chakra Control was the worst, most would assume it was Jiraiya's who was worse but no; his was actually very close to her own. How else was he capable of fashioning himself a Genjutsu so light that not even a Jounin level Kunoichi could tell if he was spying on them in the bath?

"I... I do not know Amaya." She admitted at long last, thoughts tumbling over one another, "But I will be looking into it. You've brought some things up that I hadn't considered before now, thank you. Run along home now, I'm sure your mother wouldn't mind if you went home early for once."

Amaya nibbled at his bottom lip before nodding and scampering out of the office, leaving the blonde woman's brain to run in circles and circles and circles until it cried for mercy and she cracked open the Sake bottle.

-

Yoshi-chan stared at him in surprise, her cute little face slack in shock, mouth open slightly and allowing dribbles of candied orange-peels to fall out.

Minato wasn't much better, though he didn't look quite as silly.

The dark haired Inuzuka had just frozen in the middle of taking a big bite from his rapidly melting ice cream – ice cream now melting across his hands in a sticky white mess.

There was a pause before Yoshino frowned, "Who's Uchiha Itachi anyway?"

Amaya refrained from hitting her.

But only just.

-

The next day, Team Yamato returned.

-

**Finito.**

And so the plot thickens. Muahaha!


	7. Chapter 7

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Seven**

-

Last time:

_Amaya broke into the Hokage's secret library and discovered Itachi's psychological analysis from before the massacre. Team Yamato returns from their failed mission to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru._

-

When Sakura came back Amaya had been in the living room with Iruka-sensei; painstakingly going through various Kanji forms with sloppy enthusiasm making the girl smile warmly, distantly wondering if Naruto had ever had someone to help him through the complex Kanji forms like Amaya did now. Somehow she doubted it.

The pink haired Chuunin silently opened the front door and trudged through quietly before toeing off her shoes and inhaling deeply, smiling as the familiar scents of home washed over her and the sound of her brother slowly sounding out his words as he wrote and her mother clattering around the kitchen preparing dinner. Dropping her bag on the floor she tiptoed into the kitchen and loomed behind her mother in a rare fit of good humour as the red haired woman stirred at the pot of beef stew she had been making – it smelled good Sakura's nose told her, she decided to speak up before her stomach gave her away.

"I hope you've made enough for me," she announced behind the red head, smiling wickedly as the civilian woman shrieked and jumped, whirling around with her spoon prepared to crack her attacker over the head with it when she saw her daughter and shrieked again, this time in happiness, before throwing her hands around her shoulders.

In the doorway, Iruka slipped his Kunai back into his holster and smiled at the reunion as Amaya squirmed out from behind him, determined to enjoy the group hug in the kitchen as he practically flung himself at Sakura's legs.

The Chuunin chuckled slightly and moved back into the living room, delicately putting all of Amaya's work away before sneaking back out, intending to go and slip his shoes on and leave the Haruno family to their merry making, perhaps find Takeshi when he left to tell him of his daughter's return. Kami knew how the man worried about his princess going out on such dangerous missions.

None of them noticed him leaving as Kaede fussed over her daughter and Sakura cuddled her younger brother who clumsily kissed her cheeks.

-

Sakura sighed happily, relaxing back in the hot water as her brother played with his bath toys beside her; she chuckled slightly when she noticed how his collection had grown some to include a horse, a toad and a dolphin.

The rosette haired Chuunin rubbed absently at her arm, the skin still feeling somewhat tender, even now, from Kyuubi's corrosive Chakra. She would be the first to admit, seeing Naruto like that had terrified her, but it was Naruto and she didn't want to be frightened of him, everyone was frightened of him, so she ran to him, she ran to him knowing that he wasn't himself because she didn't want to be scared of him. Because he was Naruto. Call her a fool but she'd already lost one of her boys to a horrible malicious force, she wasn't about to lose the other one to an even eviller force if she could stop it!

But at the same time, as she looked at her younger brother splashing around in front of her giggling away, she hoped that he would never have to see Naruto like that.

"C'mon you Wriggle Butt, time to get dressed," the Chuunin declared, hugging her little brother from behind as she lifted them both out of the water, ignoring his squirming and shrieking laughter as he tried to escape and return to the hot water. It had always amused her to listen to the other parents complaining about how their children hated bath time, Amaya adored it, one literally had to wrestle him out of the water instead of into it.

Towelling her younger brother dry before herself the rosette haired 15-year-old took a comb to their hair, patiently teasing out the tangles in her younger brother's hair as he chattered away excitedly about Yoshino-chan's new hamster, not as cool as Minato-kun's puppy Rai but still really awesome and why couldn't he had a pet as well? Sakura just giggled and told him to ask their mother as she went about picking apart a particularly nasty snarl in his dark hair, one of the books she'd taken out of the library suggested a large number of little activities that would bring them closer and put her younger sibling at ease. Such as brushing his hair, sharing a bath, reading to him and giving him little nicknames, so far Sakura had found Wriggle Butt and Imp appropriate for a variety of situations while her mother had taken to calling him Twinkle and their father affectionately called him Monster.

Releasing her now only slightly damp sibling, she wrapped herself in a towel and chuckled as he practically bolted out of the bathroom bare as the day he was born and scampered into the kitchen where he hugged their mother's leg and grinned up at her in all his wet and naked glory.

Kaede simply laughed and ruffled the hair her daughter had spent so long combing out, causing it to stick up like some mutant Mohawk as her son squawked in indignation and flitted away from her and back into his own room.

Sakura shook her head and slipped into her own room, discarding the towel and grabbing a pair of underwear and some chest bindings, absently she wondered if she should bring Amaya with her when she went to visit Kakashi with Naruto. They would be talking about some quite serious things, hopefully about Sasuke and what was happening with him and Otogakure, the way he had developed... the sheer strength and his ability to _suppress a Bijuu_ was not natural. The Chuunin worried her bottom lip as she began to wrap her chest, pressing her breasts into a comfortable position before strapping them in place and flattening them, she would need to visit the library, she needed some more in-depth information about Medical Drugs and their affects on the human body. Given Kabuto and Orochimaru's past, she doubted if she would find much in the way of information but anything that could give her a piece of the puzzle of Sasuke's alarming jump in ability would be a key to helping him survive it and return to Konoha safe and sound.

Pulling on her usual civilian clothing, the pink haired girl by-passed her Hitai-Ate and leather fighting gloves on her dresser and grabbed her nail clippers, giving her fingers and toes a quick snip as she thought about her options. Amaya hadn't been able to go and see Kakashi while he was in the Hospital, mainly because her mother wasn't all that fond of Kakashi for ignoring her daughter during their early Genin days and reading that smut around her, she was polite and entirely welcoming of the Jounin to his face but she spoke of him with a certain frosty tone of disapproval in his absence, so he would definitely want to go if he knew and she didn't have the heart to say no if he asked.

She sighed as she gathered up the nail clippings and brushed them off in the bin, she would just have to take him with her to the library and then the Hospital, he was quiet and a good boy, if she got him a book and told him to keep himself busy while they talked about adult things he would.

Checking to make sure she had her purse with her I.D. for the library along with some Ryou just in case she decided to stop and get something to eat on the way back from the Hospital, the pink haired girl left her room, closing the door behind her and peeked into Amaya's. The black haired child was dressed in a pair of black shorts and a green T-shirt with the Konoha-leaf swirl on his chest in red, reading one of the Academy Scrolls she'd snuck onto his shelves with enraptured attention, making her smile slightly, it looked as though the Haruno Clan was about to become a Shinobi Clan.

"Hey Amaya-chan, I'm going to see Kakashi-sensei after I've gotten something from the library, do you want to come with me?" she asked kneeling down beside him and running her fingers through his still damp hair.

The younger of the two paused thoughtfully before nodding enthusiastically, "Yes please Neechan!" he chirped as he got to his feet. Ten minutes later saw the two Cousins-turned-Siblings browsing through the bookshelves, Sakura through the advanced medicine, Amaya having found '_Anatomy for Dummies_' and was practically devouring the text – he wanted to be a Medical Ninja like Sakura-neechan and Tsuna-chan and Shizu-chan and Hana-chan.

Speaking of...

"Neechan, I think Yoshi-chan might be sick," Amaya confided quietly, it was a library after all.

Sakura blinked and knelt down beside her brother as he studiously remained absorbed in his book, "What makes you think that, Amaya-chan?" she asked, if his friend really was sick and her parents hadn't caught it then it probably wasn't serious, but there was also a chance that it _was_ serious but only in the early stages and Yoshino-chan was always outside playing with the other children, her parents didn't see her often because they were often out on missions all the time leaving her in the care of her less than attentive elder brother Nishi – who if she recalled had just taken up a job at Ichiraku Ramen.

"Well... she keeps laughing for no reason, her cheeks get all red and she stops blinking sometimes, her eyes go all glazed and she laughs really weirdly," he admitted, his voice shaking slightly, "It's scary, I think something might be really wrong."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully, it didn't sound like anything she knew of, "What was she doing before she started that?" she asked, perhaps scratching at a rash or chewing her nails, it could be a poison or it could be a mental condition that they hadn't diagnosed yet, or even discovered. It took a long time before Tsunade-sama realised her mental disorder and gave her a little counselling on the problem of her Inner.

"She was starin' at me."

Then again, perhaps not.

Sakura pressed her lips together to refrain from giggling, oh she knew those symptoms alright, she'd suffered them herself when it came to another dark haired little boy with pale skin and a shy smile. "Ahh, I know what the problem is," she announced all knowingly, still fighting the smile off of her lips, "It sounds as though Yoshino-chan has a mild case of Eros, it's not dangerous but she will act strangely for a while. Just put up with it and remember to be polite whatever she may say or ask of you, alright?" she smiled when her brother nodded enthusiastically, apparently much happier in the knowledge that his friend wasn't seriously ill and for a brief moment, Sakura felt jealous of the younger girl. Her younger brother was nice and kind, for a brief moment, Sakura wondered what life would have been like if Sasuke had been more like Amaya before roughly shaking herself and scowling mentally, how could she even think such a thing!!? Amaya wasn't even five-years-old and he was her _younger __brother!_

Getting to her feet, the rosette haired Chuunin swiftly hunted through the books of advanced medicinal herbs and drugs for the right book, '_Powerful Drugs and their uses_' falling under her fingertips and swiftly being plucked from the shelf. Nodding she patted her younger brother on the head, grabbing his attention, "You choose another book, m'kay? I'll be just over here doing a bit of research, come and find me when you've decided on the ones you want OK? No more than three though Otouto-chan."

Amaya nodded, beaming up at her, "Hai!"

Sakura smiled and moved off to the seating area where she spotted a familiar face in Sai, Amaya however was poking through the basics books, he knew there wasn't much he'd be able to do without the basics and he hadn't learned them yet. So the '_Intro to Chakra and how to control it_' was like a holy bible to the four-year-old. With this he'd be able to be a Medic Ninja like his Oneechan!

Gathering up his '_Intro to Chakra..._' and '_Anatomy for Dummies_' the dark haired child scampered over to his sister, fairly glowing with excitement, maybe if he got good enough he could go on Missions too and keep his neechan safe from bad guys!

"Well, you _**are**_ part of Team Kakashi, so you ought to at least meet him," his sister was saying as he ran to her side, sliding his books onto the table beside her, startling the two out of their conversation.

"I found the books I wanted Neechan," he announced with as much little boy importance as he could. The pinkette smiled and lifted him onto her lap and pointed to the strange boy opposite her, watching him with dark eyes and an odd expression on his face.

"Amaya, this is Sai. He's a new member of my Team; he'll be coming with us to see Kakashi-sensei later," she told him watching carefully as her brother at first shied away from him before offering him the small shy smile that had managed to melt Miterashi Anko's heart.

"Nice to meet you," he murmured quietly before burying his face into his sister's neck making her smile.

"Sai this is my younger brother Haruno Amaya, he's a little shy so please don't be offended," she explained, running her fingers through the child's hair and smiling at her Teammate, the dark haired teenager looked a little perplexed and confused over the four-year-old's behaviour but gave a hesitant smile, a real one, his cheeks lightly tinted pink.

For the next hour, the small group of three read their books, Amaya beginning to warm up to Sai and ask him questions, mostly about what he was reading in his books but when Sai couldn't answer he turned to his sister who knew _everything_. The green eyed child found himself really liking Sai, he was funny, at some point during the hour, Amaya had slipped out of his chair and crawled into Sai's lap to help him read his books because it looked like he was having trouble with one of them, he kept frowning at it and then shifting his weight uncomfortably. Sakura had laughed into her book before forcing herself to pay better attention to the text and less to her brother as he explained what smiling was meant to be and how much fun being with your friends was, for someone who was so new to emotions, having a child explain them would be best, they too were new to emotions but much more in tune with them than adults.

"Time to meet Naruto," Sakura announced getting to her feet, "Get your books Amaya-chan," she told him, smiling as he hopped out of Sai's lap and grabbed his two books and urged the dark haired Shinobi to move faster. Smiling indulgently at the chattering two the Chuunin registered the books she was taking out and took her younger brother's hand, book clasped in her free hand as the four-year-old clutched his two books to his chest protectively so he didn't drop them.

The minute Amaya saw Naruto he was away from Sakura and smacking into Naruto's side, the blonde looking absolutely stunned as the shorter boy nuzzled happily into his chest and grinned up at him with big green eyes.

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at the look on Naruto's face, he looked horrified and terrified at the same time, almost as if he was scared someone was going to beat him about the head or if Amaya were going to eat him or something. Upon seeing the expression, the four-year-old's face crumpled and he moved to step back only to have the most powerful Genin in the village smile brightly and hug him tightly, running a knuckle through his hair and making the child squawk and laugh.

"'Ruto stoppit! Neechan'll bop you!!" the child threatened, squirming within Naruto's grasp as the blonde's tan fingers dug into his sides and tickled him until the child could do little else but laugh and gasp for air while the Genin grinned evilly and hugged him close.

Sakura couldn't help the softening of her heart when she saw the two, it was clear to anyone who had eyes that Amaya practically worshipped Naruto, which was odd considering how little contact they had, then she remembered that the Konohamaru corps. often had D-rank missions to help out at the Daycare. Something that the young Sarutobi had protested most bitterly to Tsunade about, she in turn complained to anyone nearby with an ear which was how Sakura found out.

The visit to Kakashi went well, there was a bit of a situation in the beginning where she clocked both Sai and Naruto – making Amaya laugh and say 'I told you so' to Naruto – after which they went in with only minimal fuss from the receptionist demanding that the four-year-old be kept under a tight leash – her exact words being 'the little monster' – making Sakura scowl darkly, her brother was not some kind of animal that needed to be muzzled!

Kakashi didn't look as bad as he did when they'd left, in fact he looked much better and he was even reading that damn smut book so he had to have been alright, Amaya ran in and gave him a big hug which seemed to surprise the Jounin almost as much as it did Naruto, he even allowed the four-year-old to pull down the side of his mask and plant a kiss on his ojichan's cheek. After that, things went smoothly, though at the mention of training Amaya perked up curiously from his book though the interruption of Team Ten quickly had him returning to it as they spoke of adult things again.

"Amaya-chan?" he looked up with large eyes at Mr Asuma who smiled at him, prompting a curious grin back at him, "Would you like to join us for Barbecue?" he asked.

Amaya bit his lip, "Is it expensive?" he asked warily, "I don't want to cost lots of money," he added just in case they thought he was a spoilt brat like Dudley was.

"Not at all," he lied through his teeth as only a professional Shinobi could, the four-year-old was none the wiser and happily agreed, giving Kakashi another hug before slithering off the blankets and grabbing Ino and Sakura's hands – Naruto having taken his books before he'd climbed off Kakashi's bed.

Dinner with Team Ten was funny, Amaya couldn't help but giggle from where he was sat between Sakura-neechan and Ino-chan, Sai-kun had no idea how to talk to girls.

-

Tsunade rubbed at her eyelids in frustration before shooting a glare at her mentor's picture, sitting oh-so-kamidamn pretty on the wall with such a sombre face, as if reminding her of her duty to the village. Well what about his duty!? Like proper filing for instance!!?

How the hell was she supposed to find Uchiha Itachi's original file if it wasn't _anywhere_ within the filing system in the tower?

She couldn't.

And that was why she'd sent Shizune out for a bottle of sake.

She wanted to dismiss what Amaya had found but she'd gone to check it herself and even put some of her blood on his file to see if it would open for her – it wouldn't – when she asked Jiraiya if he knew anything, because she _knew_ he had an informant on the Akatsuki, he'd denied her. But she always knew when he was lying, it was something that she'd learned when they were younger, he would always meet her eyes, whenever he lied he would look her in the eye as opposed to her chest, so she knew he was lying about there being nothing wrong with Itachi's file, or at least not knowing there was something wrong with Itachi's file. She'd even brought it up with Homura and Koharu, their reactions were _most_ interesting, it was almost imperceptible but they had paled when she mentioned she was digging into the Uchiha Massacre and discovered something disturbing about Itachi's files, their faces tightened and they had informed her in the coldest of voices she'd ever heard from them in her life that she had more important things to worry about than a Cold Case Massacre when the Akatsuki were looking to commit a much larger Massacre using her favourite Demon Host as the weapon.

It was at that point she couldn't ignore it any more.

Something was smelly about the Uchiha Massacre and Itachi and both her Advisers AND Jiraiya knew something about it. Danzou as well if the subtle hints about digging too deeply and losing one's hands or head or having an accident because you got too nosy were any indication. She couldn't call him on those comments; he was just too...... slippery for that.

Kakashi would be getting out of the Hospital later tonight, she would ask for his opinion, he knew Itachi fairly well while they were both in ANBU, there had only been a bare nine years between the two of them and Itachi was much more mature than his young age suggested. If she could get a better handle on how the elder Uchiha was as a person, perhaps she too could figure out the true reasoning behind the Massacre, because no matter what the official report said, Itachi didn't _need_ to prove his capacity against his family – he _knew_ he was better than them.

The blonde woman sighed and rubbed at her eyes again, leaning back against her chair as she stretched all the kinks out of her spine, soon Naruto would begin training in earnest under Kakashi and Tenzou to completely finish the Rasengan... she wished him luck, he was going to need it. Naruto wasn't a genius, his mind moved in angles and twists and turns, he thought diagonally whereas everyone else tended to think vertically or horizontally. At least, that was how she'd heard Miterashi Anko explain it to a rather confused Morino Ibiki who just _couldn't_ get a handle on the boy.

Senjuu Tsunade leaned back in her seat as Shizune returned, a tray of sake in her grasp, and looked out of the window with knowing eyes.

Angles and curves and loops and zigzags, no one could keep up or decipher Uzumaki Naruto's thought processes.

And when the time came, that would be one of the reasons why she would gladly turn her hat to him.

Naruto was born for the Hokage's robes.

-

Yoshino-chan was being weird again.

Amaya frowned and scooted away form the dark haired girl as she giggled disturbingly and fluttered her eyes at him, maybe she had some dirt in it? He was slightly anxious around her now, ever since he'd spoken to Sakura-nee and found out that Yoshi had Eros he'd been worried that it may have been contagious. He didn't want to catch it so he'd skittered away every time she tried to touch him, Minato-kun had cottoned on to the change in the group dynamics and asked him about it when Yoshino's mother came to collect her from playgroup, which was how Minato learned about their friend having Eros.

"_Don't worry about it Maya-kun! I can't get Eros 'cause I'm an Inuzuka! We don't get sick as easy as you guys do!_" the four-almost-five-year-old announced proudly, from that moment on he'd started to put himself between Amaya and Yoshino.

Unfortunately, Ishikawa Yoshino wasn't as stupid as a lot of girls were and figured out that Minato was trying to keep her away from Amaya, the screaming tantrum and fight that broke out took two of the Carers to break up because Yoshino had her teeth sunken into Minato's arm fairly deeply and the young Inuzuka refused to let go of her long dark hair, his claws digging into her scalp vindictively. Amaya hadn't stopped crying over the whole thing, he thought it was his fault and nothing Sakura or any of the other paediatrics Medic Nins could said would change his mind, he had only stopped when Minato was released with his bite mark all healed up, the green eyed child had promptly flung himself at his friend babbling apologies and crying on him. Kiba had to refrain from laughing at the look of confusion on Minato's face at his friend's reaction, the Inuzuka clan were a violent one and more than once the youngster had ended up needing to see a Medic Nin regarding bites and other injuries, so he was a bit bemused about why his friend was so worked up about a minor injury.

Sufficed to say, the dynamics of the Playgroup had been changed irreparably from that day onwards.

Yoshino joined with the group of girls who liked to play dress up and dollies in the corner, while Amaya and Minato continued to play their pranks and run around outside, or during the quiet times, draw pictures or read books ready to go out and join the Shinobi Academy. Fairly soon another two girls joined the group, Hyuuga Natsumi and Arisu Fujiko who were both really fun, though Natsumi seemed to be a little depressed.

Amaya's punishment for sneaking into the Library was over with so he found himself with lots of time to play after they were released from Playgroup, but he also found himself missing all his adult friends. Which was how he found himself running through all the training grounds with a heavy backpack looking for Naruto-nii and Kashi-jichan, they were training and Sakura-neechan made a comment about them having not packed anything to eat, so Amaya had gone running to Mrs Akimichi and asked her if he could use the little pocket money he'd saved to get Naruto and Kakashi something to eat because they'd been training so they must be _really_ hungry! He hadn't expected the kind hearted woman to make a veritable feast, stow it in a storage scroll to put in his little backpack and all for free, he tried to protest but the pleasantly plump woman would have none of that and pushed him firmly out of the store with a reminder that Kakashi and Naruto must have been very hungry by this point.

Completely forgetting about his protests regarding the payment of the food, the four-year-old had scurried off as fast as his little legs could carry him towards the training grounds, a short stop at the Jounin Bar and a slightly mentally scarring conversation with Maito Gai gave the child the location of Naruto and Kakashi.

"- think... I'm finally starting to like you!" Amaya blinked in surprise as the three Narutos jerked as if struck at Kakashi-ji's words and the weird ball thing in between their hands exploding and knocking them all over with a yell.

"Aw, man! Now look what you did! You made me lose control of the Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, pointing at the silver haired Jounin as the other two Narutos popped out of existence in small clouds of smoke.

"WOOOOW!!" Amaya yelled, his eyes widening in excitement as he ran forward, hopping over the torn ground from where the Clones had gone Kyuubi and Yamato had to restrain them or from where they'd failed at a Jutsu and torn the earth. "How did you DO that!?" he exclaimed excitedly smacking into Naruto's leg and clinging to the orange fabric as the blond boy blinked in surprise at the sudden arrival of the Chibi.

"Amaya, what are you doing here?" Kakashi asked, thankful for the interruption of his little blunder; trust Naruto to take such a simple compliment the wrong way. Kakashi supposed it was because he was always looking for other meanings in people's words, just in case it was a threat.

The child blinked before jumping back, "Oh yeah! I got lunch!" he shouted happily, "Trainin' makes ya hungry right? Neechan said you hadn't come back for lunch," he said pulling his little backpack off and withdrawing the storage scroll, "Akimichi-san made it cause I'm still too little to reach the stoves at the restaurant," he admitted with a slight pout, he'd wanted to make it but he was too small, he didn't like being small.

"Kakashi!" the small group looked up at Tenzou's shout, Naruto having to wipe drool off his chin as he did so, Chouji's mum made the _best_ food ever – with the exception of Old man Ichiraku. "We need to call off the lesson and head back to the village!"

"What!?" Naruto yelped as though scolded with hot water, his face a picture of outrage.

Kakashi could feel a sinking sensation in his stomach at the uncustomary grim look on Yamato's face as he moved towards them, "What is it, Yamato?" he asked, dreading the answer before the other Jounin could even open his mouth.

The dark haired man glanced to Amaya, stood innocently between his Senpai and student before sighing; he should learn early that being a Shinobi wasn't a bed of roses before he got in too deep, "Sarutobi Asuma..." he trailed off before taking a deep breath, forcing the words past his swollen tongue and the thick lump in his throat, "has been killed..."

-

Mr Asuma was dead. He wasn't coming back.

Amaya drifted through the funeral in a state of dry eyed shock, he just stared at the little plaque on the floor with large green eyes as Miss Kurenai gently laid down a bundle of white lilies. Lilies symbolised... They were flowers given at funerals.

The sky was disgustingly bright.

It should have been raining, Amaya decided, the sky should have been crying along with Konohamaru-nii and Miss Kurenai, her eyes were dry but she was crying inside, it was easy to see for anyone with eyes. But yeah, it should have been raining, because Mr Asuma was really nice, he took them out for Barbecue and never smoked around him, always gave him a special little wave and a smile whenever he saw him. Mr Asuma was too nice to die! He wasn't supposed to die! He was a good guy! The good guys don't die, it's the bad guys! The Bad guys had to die! That was the way it went.

He was dimly aware of his lips trembling as his nose and his eyes got damp and began to get runny, of Sakura-neechan wrapping her arms around him as he burrowed his face in her shoulder and just trembled slightly.

Mr Asuma shouldn't have died......

Amaya didn't want him to die. It wasn't right.

Miss Kurenai wasn't crying.

-

**Finito.**

**This chapter was quite difficult to churn out and it was even more difficult to continue, so I decided to cut it off here and begin Chapter eight.**

Now, some people have expressed a bit of confusion about when Amaya will be heading off to Hogwarts, here's the short answer:

**Not any time soon.**

**With the way things will progress, Amaya's got a few more things to influence while he's still young that will lay the foundations for the Konoha HE will be raised in and eventually serve as a Shinobi. I know you guys are dying to see him at Hogwarts (me too) but be patient. This story doesn't just focus on him – we still have Naruto himself and the whole mess with Madara and Akatsuki to clean up, and let's not get into Sasuke and Danzou just yet.**

**So, patience people.**

**I can give you a rough estimate that the first half of this story will probably end on the twenty to twenty-fifth chapter, hopefully, and then we'll have Harry in Hogwarts**.

Also, for those not in the know: I have a Facebook page. Drop me a line, I have the link on my FFnet Bio. 8)

-

**Future Story:**

**Ignition**: _One Piece/Harry Potter crossover_. Magic is unpredictable at best, chaotic at worst – no one could have predicted the backlash of magic in the Second Task when Harry attempted to use something more complex than a '_Relashio_'. No one could have known what would happen, or where Harry would end up. Four years after his disappearance, Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Cat Thief Nami and Usopp rescue a man lost at sea who has no memory of life before he awoke on a beach in the Grand Line.

**This is a story that people who have watched One Piece can read and one for those who haven't seen it and don't mind spoilers. Because there are spoilers in this. Quite early on as well. **

**Pairing is: **Zoro/Harry, Luffy/Hancock, _possible_ Paulie/Nami (for some reason I kinda like it.)

-

**_THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS PLEASE!!!_**


	8. Chapter 8

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

**WARNING: This is where Canon-Divergence begins – somewhat.**

-

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Eight**

-

Last Time: _The beginning of Amaya's fangirl troubles, an introduction to Sai, the Death of Asuma and the end of Volume 37 of Naruto Shippuden._

Now: _A fifth birthday, Kakashi and Tsunade investigate, Lee cleans up and Konohamaru has to answer an unpleasant question._

-

Her head was throbbing something fierce. A dull pulsing ache right at the back of her skull that no amount of medicine would be able to remove, a kind of tense muscle ache in a place where there were no muscles beyond that of which was in her head. It felt like there wasn't enough liquid in her skull and her brain was drying out and trying to escape through her spinal column into more hydrated parts of her body.

"Tsunade-sama, Hatake-san to see you."

The blonde woman looked up and nodded her thanks, "Thank you Hotaru-san, that will be all," she told the Civilian woman who was standing in for Shizune while the Special Jounin was out on assignment. The young woman stepped back to allow the much taller silver haired male into the room, on time for once.

"You wanted to see me Tsunade-sama?" he asked politely his tone of voice slightly disgruntled, he was somewhat dishevelled from his training with Naruto and he was quite obviously not pleased with being pulled away from it so soon.

"Yes. Sit," she ordered gesturing to the comfortable chair set aside especially for him, sensing that this was going to be a serious conversation the Jounin wisely took his seat and waited for her to gather her thoughts and continue her remarks. "You were the Captain of Uchiha Itachi's ANBU unit were you not?" she finally asked having figured that her best chance of getting answers was the direct approach.

Judging by the slow blink from the other male, she could have just thrown a goldfish at his head and he would have been less surprised.

"ANBU Weasel, yes, he was one of my subordinates before my retirement. I specifically recommended his placement as Captain after my departure."

Tsunade nodded, "So he was what you would deem a trustworthy individual?" she asked pointedly.

Kakashi nodded, "At the time I would have trusted him with my life. But with my current knowledge, such an action would have probably _cost_ me my life," he paused a slight frown creasing his visible features as the fabric of his mask bunched in a way that made it obvious his mouth was down turned, "If I may ask, what is this about, Lady Fifth?" he asked hesitantly.

Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair feeling every year that she wasn't showing acutely in her bones, she wasn't nearly as young as she used to be and she wanted Naruto to hurry it up and become worthy of her Hat so she could retire, drink sake, spoil Amaya rotten with candy and shit and play Bingo with the other old geezers. And then point and laugh at Jiraiya when his former student sent him on missions to earn his keep and stop him from causing disturbances at the Hot Springs. It sounded perfect in her head.

"A few things came to my attention and it seems as though there is _much, __much_ more to the Uchiha Massacre and Itachi than previously recorded," she said by means of explanation, "And it seems to have connections with my so-called Advisers and Danzou."

To his credit, Kakashi didn't react to this news much beyond a slight widening of his eye and a grim twist of the fabric over his mouth.

She held a file out to him, "This is Itachi's psychological profile. A little ninja managed to find it in the private records and informed me of a few aberrations in the data. When I brought it to the attention of my Advisers, their reactions were most interesting, after that I ensured to keep this data protected. I replaced this file with a fake in the official records. The fake was destroyed not long after it was replaced. There is definitely something foul in the air, Kakashi. I want you to find out what it is, I'm giving you full permission to pull any Ninja from active duty that you see fit and use any resources you have to, take as long as you need. I want answers but remember this is an S-ranked mission, keep it quiet and do not tell anyone you absolutely don't have to, including Naruto. _Especially_ Naruto. He doesn't need to be involved, not yet."

Kakashi nodded and saluted her, "It will be done, Lady Fifth," he confirmed his natural suspicion and curiosity having been thoroughly poked into life by the information and the mission he had just been given. A slight shiver of anticipation and excitement wriggling down his spine like pins and needles, reminding him acutely of his days within the ANBU.

Tsunade nodded before waving him off, "Go make sure Naruto hasn't blown himself up, I have a headache the size of Kaze no Kuni and no patience to deal with anyone right now."

And wasn't that a frightening thought?

Kakashi saluted again before deciding to leave through the door – because there was no need to antagonise the blonde woman when she was short on patience anyway and regardless of her age her aim was still top notch and paperweights to the back of the head hurt like a bitch.

His first port of call was Naruto; he could make a solid start on this later. It had been sitting cold for the past eight years, it wasn't going anywhere and it could wait another day and possibly a half for what he had to do.

-

"What's this?"

Minato grinned toothily at his bestfriend, "It's my fifth birthday, Tsume-bachan says I can have a party at the house so I'm invitin' you. Yer sister knows where we live don't she?" he asked curiously while Amaya stared at the little red invitation card in his hands. He'd never been invited to a party before, he'd never even had a party before, what was he supposed to do? Whenever Dudley had parties he would be locked in the cupboard and told to stay quiet under pain of no dinner and double the chores.

"Huh? Yeah. Yeah she knows where you live. I do too, or didya forget?" he asked nudging Minato in the side with an elbow while Rai barked happily at their knees.

Minato blushed slightly and tackled the smaller boy to the floor, fingers digging into his sides and tickling him harshly starting a small tussling match on the grass with Rai skittering out of the way with an unhappy bark as he found solace in Natsumi's lap, the young girl smiling a little as she threaded her fingers through his brown fur.

"Ne, Natsu-chan, what's wrong? You look real sad," Takashi-kun pointed out he hadn't been at the Care Centre for a while, he got Kusa flu and his Kaasan pulled him out until it passed.

The dark haired girl rubbed at her bandage covered forehead before pulling her hand away, "I'm alright Taka-kun. It's nothing," she assured him. Her fifth birthday had been last week, last week she'd been branded with the Hyuuga's Caged Bird Seal, last week her life had been ruined in a way her classmates, carefree, happy and loved as they were, could never understand.

The green haired boy bobbed his head from side to side before shrugging a shoulder deciding to leave it for now. He was much smarter than he tended to let on and he knew that Natsumi was still upset over what had happened, hopefully she would cheer up a little later on and tell him so he could make it better. She was too pretty to look sad forever.

"You gunna go to Mina-kun's party?" he asked watching as Sakumo-kun jumped into the wrestling contest between Amaya and Minato while Yoshino watched with an unusual expression on her little face from her circle of girls which had grown to include scrappy Ako Kazumi who was looking very disgruntled over her sudden inclusion but secretly pleased. No girl likes to be excluded from the group even if she thinks the group is stupid.

Natsumi stroked Rai's ears silently, "Maybe. I'll ask Neji-itoko(1) for permission when he gets back from his mission."

"Amaya-chan, time to go!"

Wriggling out from under Minato, Amaya scampered over to his mother waving the red invitation, "Kaasan! Kaasan! Minato-kun invited me to his birthday party! Can I go, please can I go? Please Kaasan!?" he cried thrusting the paper at her excitedly as she took it and gave the text a quick scan. Smiling at him and the dark haired Inuzuka who was feigning disinterest very poorly from where he was sitting on the floor.

"I don't see why not but let's ask your father just in case," she agreed as she took the four-year-old's hand and began to lead him out of the room, the green eyed child twisting in her grasp to wave at his friends as they left for home.

The two of them returned to the house, none the wiser of the battle of life and death happening between the Immortal Twins and Konoha's Team Ten and Team Kakashi just outside the Nara's Deer Grounds. They didn't even feel the ever so fine tremors of the ground as Naruto's Rasenshuriken destroyed Kazuku's Fire and Wind Hearts.

It was probably for the best.

It made for a great bedtime story when Sakura got back and regaled her little brother with another tale about the Orange Ninja and the Red Martians.

-

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Positive. Now hold still. I just have to get the last few hairs here. Ahh, I don't know why we didn't do this before, you look good. I'm jealous, you have such long eyelashes."

"B-but - "

"Stop arguing. It's an improvement. Or are you scared that just because your outside has changed, your insides will do so as well?"

"No! That's not it! Its just.... what if she doesn't recognise me?"

"Haha! Right now, I think that's a good thing. Who knew you could clean up so well? EY! Don't touch that! It took me ages and stop chewing your nails! You're going to ruin them!"

"S-sorry."

"It's fine. Oh man I wish I could see her face when she gets a load of you, heehee, I bet Ino would pay money, real money, to get hold of a picture."

"I would pay money to see their reactions as well."

"Don't say such things about our comrades! It's dishonourable!"

"Quit yapping and go and see her then. Or are you chicken?"

"......."

-

"GAH! I JUST CAN'T EAT LEFT-HANDED!"

Amaya giggled from where he was eating his own ramen as Naruto fumbled with his chopsticks and eventually chaos broke out when both Sakura-neechan and Sai-kun tried to feed him. Slurping down the rest of his food, the four-year-old clambered up onto the counter and crawled over to Naruto while Sakura was preoccupied greeting Kakashi, sitting down beside Naruto's bowl he tapped the Genin on the hand.

"Do you need a hand Naru-nii? I can feed you if you want," he offered with a small smile, "I already finished my food," he announced with all the little boy pride he could muster, "It was a big bowl too!" he added.

Swatting Sai away from his food the blond nodded hastily to the four year old who pulled Naruto's bowl carefully over to him as Kakashi took a seat beside Sakura and smiled at the slowly dying down fuss as Amaya carefully gathered up the ramen noodles and offered them to the Genin – making sure not to get any of the hot broth on him or the counter-top – Old man Ichiraku wasn't even getting irate over the fact that the green eyed boy was sitting _on_ the counter for the moment.

When Naruto finished eating, he ignored all the serious talk going on around him in favour of pulling out a brush and ink pot and doodling a picture of a toad on the cast around Naruto's arm, he gave it a big sword and a jacket and some tongue piercings and an eyepatch and drew a whole load of fire around it. He named it Gama-oyabun and wrote it down the back of Naruto's hand in big loopy hiragana.

He only heard Naruto say: "I know my body better than anyone else does. I'm gunna be Hokage, so don't you worry about me, I'm just that awesome!"

Amaya frowned, "But if you get hurt Neechan'll get upset!" he snapped, giving Naruto's arm a sharp nudge, making the blond squeak and recoil away from the suddenly ferocious looking four-year-old. "If you make Neechan cry like Sasuke-yarou I'll get Tsuna-chan to bop you over the head _really_ hard!" he threatened his green eyes narrowed and sharp, kind of like Sakura's just before she shrieked '_SHANNARO!_' and obliterated something.

Naruto nodded with wide eyes, wondering just why he suddenly felt intimidated by a child even as Sakura scolded him for using rude words before demanding just where he learned the word 'Yarou'(2).

Amaya just nodded seriously before blushing and wilting under the scolding from Sakura.

-

"_ONNANOKO TACHI NO JUTSU!!_"

Amaya blinked and tugged at Sakura's skirt, "Neechan, what are those two girls doing?" he asked just loudly enough for the others to hear him.

The pinkette never answered him as she was too busy stomping over and _hurting_ Konohamaru to give him an answer, as the teacher in the group, Kakashi endeavoured to explain.

"Well, when a woman loves a woman very much..." he trailed off completely uncertain about the moral and ethical ramifications of explaining lesbian sex to a four year old and which woman was going to reach him and _hurt_ him first, Tsunade, Kaede, Shizune, Sakura or _Anko_.

But the light of realisation brightened up the four-year-old's eyes, "Oh! Like Uncle Vernon's videos!?" he asked innocently.

Before Kakashi could formulate a proper reply to that, (And really, what _could_ he say to that? Even thinking about what he could have said made the Jounin cringe and vow to never have children.) Konohamaru's voice rang out again, calling out the name of a Jutsu that made Kakashi's stomach drop out through his shoes.

"_OTOKONOKO TACHI NO JUTSU!!_"

Kakashi moved quickly though and quickly slapped a hand over Amaya's eyes to try and preserve what little innocence the child had left, the fact that Konohamaru had chosen Sasuke and Sai didn't register much beyond '_So I wasn't the only one who thought the Uchiha was gay_'.

"Kashi-ji, I can't see! Take your hand off!" the child demanded squirming unhappily within Kakashi's grasp, but the Jounin wasn't moving until he was certain that Konohamaru wasn't going to whip out another pervert jutsu, like Nekojinnoko tachi no jutsu – No bad Kakashi! Don't think of naked catgirls pressing against one ano....ther....

BAD KAKASHI!!

-

Ramshackle buildings in serious disrepair, moss growing in between the cobble stones and in the gutters, grass peeking out of guttering and moss coating otherwise white walls. The blood long having been washed away in the rain over the last eight years.

The Uchiha District, deserted, untouched and undisturbed ever since the night of the massacre, save only for the footsteps of the ANBU who collected Sasuke's belongings the morning after his awakening and refusal to ever step foot within the bloodstained nightmare of his Clan's compound. Regardless of the bright sunshine, the out of place almost laughably bright flowers that grew from the cracks and smiled at them from the grass, the place still managed to seem eerie and foreboding in it's silence and lifelessness within the darkness.

Kakashi quickly popped a Soldier pill and pushed his Hitai-ate up, he was going to need the Sharingan for this, Shikaku, Neji and Tsume stood at his side, Neji following his actions and popping his own Soldier Pill before activating the Byakugan. They were going to make a thorough sweep of the entire compound, note down _anything_ suspicious to their eyes or Tsume's nose and then go through it all with Shikaku before taking any further steps.

Armed with thorough photos of the scenes of the massacre they hoped to find a pattern, Tsunade had done some fancy talking to her Advisers to get them to back off, one of the main things they were to look into beyond the Massacre was the possibility of the Uchiha's Jutsu Library.

"We'll go in anti-clockwise and spiral our way into the centre of the complex," Kakashi stated deciding to get this over with sooner rather than later. If the rumours that Jiraiya's spy network were bringing in had even the slightest portion of truth to them, then they needed to figure out the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre and they needed to do it _soon_.

"Ossu!"

-

Sarutobi Konohamaru may have been considered a bit of a brat and a bit of a joke by some of the other Ninja but very few of them seemed to realise how skilled he was. His Teammates knew, his Sensei knew, Naruto-Nii knew, Sakura-neechan knew, Kakashi-sensei knew and so did a handful of others and that was the way he liked it.

Like Naruto, he used his reputation as a shield, as a tool.

After Asuma-ji died, he'd thrown himself into training in a way that had frightened his Teammates at first, but then Akimichi Moegi got into the swing of things and suddenly Konohamaru was having to avoid some of her nastier attacks and learn how to deal with surprise assassination attempts from Juuno Udon. They helped him, they trained him and he grew stronger for it. He learned how to perform **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** (_Shadow Clone Technique_) which was a feat unheard of by a Genin, Naruto-nii was different, he was special, so when Konohamaru managed it, it truly was an incredible act. And he knew that.

Which was why he decided to use it in a pervert technique, because no one would care that he'd learned **Kage Bunshin** if he used it like that, no one would notice that he was cranking out a Jounin Level technique at 12-years-old.

He was better off working in the shadows like a true Shinobi anyway.

But nothing could have prepared him for this.

"Kono-nii, what were those two ladies doing?"

"Err..." the Genin rubbed at the back of his head in horror as guileless green eyes stared up at him innocently, a little hand clutching his scarf from where he'd pulled on it to catch the older boy's attention.

How in the hell did he answer that without Sakura-neechan _killing_ him for corrupting her innocent little brother?

How in the hell did he answer that without _MOEGI-CHAN_ killing him for corrupting her Senpai's innocent little brother?

"_Yes Konohamaru-chan_, what _**were**_ those two ladies doing?" a voice hissed behind him.

The youngest Sarutobi paled and turned to see his Teammate stood behind him, hands braced on her hips, carrot coloured hair seeming to bristle slightly with disapproval as her honey coloured eyes narrowed on him, rosy cheeks becoming a little darker and seemingly more menacing.

"Ah, Moegi-chan. It's not what it sounds like!" he spluttered in a desperate attempt to save himself.

Her eyes narrowed and Amaya turned to her, "He made two ladies hug each other without their clothes on. Kashi-ji said they loved each other lots," he told her quite matter of factly, "That's why they were naked," he added knowingly, completely unaware of how pale Konohamaru had just gone and how red Moegi had just turned.

"Amaya-chan, why don't you run along and catch up to your sister hm? I'm sure she can explain girl things better than a boy," she told him sweetly watching as the four-year-old thought about it for a second before nodding and running off. Not hearing the whimper from Konohamaru as his teammate turned her attention onto him.

"_**BUBUN BAIKA NO JUTSU!!**_"(3)

-

Sakura giggled as she watched the miniature army of four and five-year-olds run riot in the Inuzuka's back garden.

Minato was dressed in a dark red fur hood jacket with a green Konoha symbol on his shoulder and a new pair of red ninja-sandals, Rai was perched on his head making him look like a very young, very red version of Kiba when he made Genin. Right now the birthday boy was showing off his new coat to Amaya who was touching and stroking the white fur of his hood admiringly as Rai tried to squirm off Minato's head and lick at his fingers.

Kiba was giving various children rides on a long-suffering but patient Akamaru – to be honest, Sakura got the feeling that Akamaru liked all the attention as well – while the Haimaru and his sister Hana kept things under control and organised Shuriken throwing matches and made sure there was enough food to feed all the hellions.

"Hey, Sakura!" the pinkette turned and smiled as she spotted Tenten jogging over, a grin so wide it looked like it would split her lips as she tugged a boy behind her, his feet leaving gouges in the ground as he tried to stop or escape from her grasp.

"Tenten, ohaiyo," she greeted as the Kunoichi came to a stop beside her, "What's up? Who's this?" she asked tilting her head and smiling at the strange boy the bun-haired girl had been forcibly pulling along behind her. He _looked_ familiar.

He was clearly a Shinobi even if he didn't have a Hitai-ate within sight, he moved with the economy and stature of someone who was _very_ skilled with Taijutsu, he stood a few inches taller than her at about 5'6" in height, his hair was black and short but it seemed feathered and unruly, his rather round, dark eyes were framed with gorgeously long lashes. He wore a pair of green cargoes tucked into a pair of blue Shinobi-sandals, a pair of orange bracers and a dark green T-shirt with a style-ised red flame patterning the hem. She didn't recognise him from anywhere, how did he know Tenten? She knew she'd never seen him before but he just seemed so _familiar!_ If it weren't for his eyebrows, she would have thought it were Rock Lee, but this guy, he had normal human eyebrows that... had... tan lines.

Sakura's eyes narrowed before practically bugging out of her skull at the blushing and shifting boy in front of her, "Lee-san?" she choked as Tenten's grin became that much broader and the other Chuunin blushed and nodded. "Wuh-what happened to you?" she squeaked circling him in slack-jawed amazement, "The spandex, the eyebrows, the _hair_? Where did they all go?" she asked before eyeing him, "Are you even happy like this? I know how much you look up to Gai-sensei..."

Lee shifted and opened his mouth for a moment before closing it and looking away, rolling his shoulders as a small group of children rushed by shrieking with laughter as Tsume's Kuromaru chased after them, playfully threatening to sit on them if he caught up.

Tenten decided to answer for him, "He actually _asked_ me and Neji to help him out," she explained as Lee's face went an even darker shade of red, she tugged the pinkette a bit closer, "I think he wanted to impress you," she whispered.

Sakura blinked at her fellow Kunoichi and felt something twist in her chest as she looked back at Lee.

He looked uncomfortable and strange without his spandex, bowl cut and eyebrows, and... Though the gesture was sweet and heartfelt... she found herself missing the old Lee, the one that would shout and pose and smile at her with bright teeth and enthusiasm. This quiet, shy and alien Lee pulled at her heart and the knowledge that he'd done this, changed himself like this, _for her_... made her stomach churn with guilt.

"Um-um, Sah-Sakura-san, it... it would be a g-great honour and a privilege if... if you would join me for d-d-dinner tomorrow... please?" the Chuunin managed to stutter out his voice losing strength as he spoke before eventually dying down to a bare whisper as he stared at his toes and fiddled with his clothing.

Sakura could feel her heart breaking and even though she didn't think of Lee _THAT_ way, she couldn't stop herself from opening her mouth and saying '_O-Okay_'. The blinding smile of sheer delight however, made that feeling vanish and she couldn't help but return that smile, the pity and guilt that had made her agree easing until they weren't there.

Tenten, watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but give her Teammate a '_**GAI-SENSEI **__thumbs up_' and grin from behind Sakura. She felt like a proud parent as she watched Lee and Sakura strike up conversation, at first slightly awkward and stumbling, but then became natural and flowing as their true natures came to the surface. The pair of them arguing over Taijutsu techniques and then swapping stories about past missions and embarrassing childhood incidents, soon they were laughing like old friends and the bun-haired girl wouldn't _wait_ to tell Neji about the blazing success. She'd seen Sakura's face when she'd looked at Lee having realised it was him, the guilt and pain that flashed through her expression had made Tenten that much more approving of the pink haired Chuunin. She valued Lee for Lee, spandex, eyebrows, bowl-cut, Flames of Youth and all.

Tenten managed to turn away quickly enough to catch sight of a miniature disaster amidst the four-year-olds.

While Sakura and Lee had been chatting, Amaya and Minato had joined up with Takeshi, Sakumo, Natsumi and Fujiko to organise a game of Ninja Tag which at some point gained the rest of the children as players and even a few of the Inuzuka dogs. No one had thought twice about having the '_Girlie Girls_' join in, after all, most of them would be joining in the Ninja programme, why not let them join in?

Tenten had turned around just in time to see Yoshino, who was It, kiss Amaya on the mouth from where she was sitting on the struggling boy.

The horrified wail from the four-year-old had Minato practically flying out of the trees and shoving Yoshino off while the green eyed child wiped at his mouth and spat onto the grass. Tenten couldn't help but laugh incredulously at the scene, that was a bit of an over reaction to just a kiss. It wasn't even an open mouthed one with tongue. It was perfectly sweet and innocent and the boy in question was acting as though he had been poisoned and his friend was attacking the girl as though she'd committed a crime.

A riot broke out between the children.

Tenten watched as one half of the children – the ones that she noted were dressed in the simpler clothing suited to Ninja life – descended upon the other half with the ruthless ferocity of a pack of wolves. The fight that broke out made the young Chuunin shudder later, she'd heard the saying that children could be little monsters, but to actually see the transformation from cheerful energetic balls of hair to vicious snarling creatures was something else.

She would only find out from Lee a week later what the whole miniature War had been about.

-

"Stop!"

"What is it?"

"I can see Chakra coating that far wall."

"My Byakugan is unable to view past it."

"Troublesome. There are seals painted in a slightly different shade of grey. Tsume?"

"No scent of blood, s'gotta be Sharingan activation."

"We need to report this to Tsunade-sama before we go charging in there."

"Agreed."

"Hai."

"Tch, wonder what was so important the Uchihas' had that they needed to hide it behind a wall that a Byakugan can't get past. Must've taken years to come up with a Seal capable of that."

"Hn."

"Let's go."

-

**(1) Neji-itoko :** Basically means Cousin Neji.

**(2) Yarou :** Means Bastard. Not language a four-year-old should know but hey, he and Anko hang out occasionally.

**(3) Bubun Baika no Jutsu : **Partial Multisize technique, one of the Akimichi's Family techniques. Yes I said Akimichi, I decided to make Moegi an Akimichi because of the markings on her cheeks and the colour of her hair. Seemed to fit and it's cute that ....nah I won't say. X3

-

**Finito. Its actually the 27 of August '09 right now so muahaha! I wonder when I'll post this chapter up? Probably some when in April 2010 considering how I'm going to be sticking with monthly updates when possible.**

**Tell me what you think!!**

Araceil

**Looks like I was right about posting this in April XDD**


	9. Chapter 9

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

**WARNING: Sakura/Lee cuteness.**

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Nine**

* * *

Last Time: _Kakashi finds a Seal, Yoshino kisses Amaya, Lee gets a make-over, Konohamaru gets a beating._

Now: _Kakashi reports, Amaya hides, Sakura has a date, Lee cures Eros and Kakashi discovers the Darkest Secret in Konoha History._

* * *

"Permission to break the seal and continue investigation?"

Tsunade's lips thinned, honey brown eyes narrow as she carefully thought what she was about to do over, if they found the Library then Konohagakure no Sato's Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu specialists would benefit greatly, their forces would know techniques known to only a handful of people in opposing villages, they would know how to counter them and turn them against their user. But... if it was the Library, she wouldn't be able to look into the Uchiha Massacre any further, her official excuse for the exploration of the estate was to look for the library to better train their forces against the threat of Akatsuki. But if it WAS something connected to the massacre... the chaos it would unleash would be next to unimaginable.

"Granted. But tell no one of your findings. Only myself. The Elders are not to know," she finally announced giving her Jounin a flat and severe look, anyone who went against that order would undoubtedly be branded a traitor and executed. An extremely harsh punishment by Konoha Standards, possibly too harsh, but this was a more important than a few ruffled feathers of civilians who liked to think they lived in a village of Tree Huggers. Like it or lump it, people would die.

Kakashi nodded and immediately **Shunshin**ed away back to the Uchiha estate, he needed to unravel the Seal without destroying what was on the other side.

He didn't expect to find ROOT ANBU already stood in the Seal room, the masked Shinobi stiffened and looked up so fast he swore he heard necks cracking, if it were appropriate, he would have laughed at the looks in their eyes. The fact that he could see a number of eyes that most certainly shouldn't have been behind their masks killed any amusement he may have felt at catching the children with their hands in the Jutsu cookie jar.

"I see Danzou is determined to be executed for Treason," he announced his voice dark as his whole body curled and tensed, ready to fight as the ROOT seemed to shake themselves back into the game. Two drew swords and another began to weave hand signs for a Genjutsu.

They didn't get a chance to attack before they became completely motionless and black hands crawled across their bodies, clawed fingers digging into their throats and cutting off their air supply. Kakashi leaned against the wall and watched with cold eyes as the children, because they were children, they were younger than Naruto and Sakura, gasped and tried to break free even as their faces turned red and then purple before their eyes rolled up and bodies became limp, the only thing holding them up being Shikaku's Jutsu.

"Troublesome. Tsunade-hime's going to pitch a fit," the scarred Nara grunted.

Kakashi sighed, "Let her direct it at Danzou, she's been too antsy lately anyway. She needs to blow off some steam and this'll give her an excuse. Drop them off in her office, I'll make my official report later once I've cracked this open and assessed what's within myself."

"Hn. Tsume, stick around and watch his back," Shikaku told his old friend, the wild haired woman pouting slightly as she muttered about missing her little nephew's birthday but never the less settled on the floor to guard Kakashi's back while he immersed himself in trying to make heads and tails of the Fuuinjutsu array in front of him. Even with a Sensei like the Yondaime it was a head scratcher for him.

Sharingan eyes narrowed and he almost groaned, a secondary Seal Array linked under the third spinal line.

This was going to take longer than he thought.

* * *

Sakura sighed as she leaned against the wall opposite Amaya's room.

She honestly didn't know how to handle this, she thought she was being clever when she tried to explain Yoshino-chan's crush off as something like a cold. Yeah, really damn clever Haruno, now your little brother has locked himself in his room and refuses to let anyone touch him for fear of '_infection_' or '_breaking the quarantine'_.

She hadn't even known about her younger brother's distress until five minutes ago when she'd come downstairs to get a goodbye kiss and hug only to find her mother trying to reason with a locked door. Tonight was her date with Lee and she'd decided to get dressed up for him as he'd gone to all the effort of a Make-Over for her, she wore a long knee length pale pink strap dress, red strap sandals with a kitten heel, a red hair ribbon and a red shawl, around her neck she wore a simple gold pendent of a diamond and four emeralds in the shape of a clover leaf. She rarely had the chance to wear such nice clothing and she'd actually _felt_ like a _Lady_ when she'd caught a glimpse of herself in her mother's full length mirror as she passed her parent's room. But now she was considering calling the whole thing off and trying to convince her younger brother that he wasn't sick, he wasn't going to die and he wasn't going to start creeping out his friends and playing with the Girlie Girls.

"See if you can't talk some sense into him Sakura-chan. I'm all out of ideas," her mother announced, folding her arms under her soft ample chest with an almost teenager-y pout on her lips making the younger girl smile and lean up to kiss her on the cheek as she passed, "Oh and you look lovely dear, don't let your father know or he'll never let you out of the house," she added as the rosette haired Chuunin passed her by.

Kaede smiled as she moved to answer the door, beaming at the nervous young man stood in front of her, "You must be Rock Lee, come in, come in," she stepped aside to allow him entrance.

"T-Thank you Haruno-san!" he exclaimed, bowing deeply at the waist and thrusting out a clumsily wrapped gift, "For you!" he continued nervously, keeping his head down and his arms extended, feeling sweat snake down the side of his face as the weight in his hands vanished and he heard the rustle of paper.

He couldn't help but look up when he heard the soft exclamation of surprise from the older woman, so beautiful just like her daughter with hair the colour of Konoha's Flames of Youth and eyes like the vibrant land around them, he knew now that Sakura's beauty would only grow with her age and strength and he wanted to be there to see it. Haruno-san was gently handling a hand carved picture frame, Lee wasn't very good at a lot of things, but he always tried very hard, but carving and whittling were always things that came easily to him and he enjoyed them above all others. It was very relaxing after a long day of training and taking missions to just go home, sit down with a knife and a piece of wood and _make_ something.

The photoframe was one of his best, it was inlaid with cherry blossoms, waterfalls and maple leaves, he'd used dirt, cream and sap to create a special enamel to give it some colour, the waves were edged in different shades of pale and dark blue, the cherryblossoms in pink and silver and the maple leaves in red and gold. He had wanted a picture of Sakura and Amaya to put into it but thought that perhaps it would be a little invasive and beg the question about _why_ he had such a picture within his possession.

"Lee-san, its beautiful. Thank you so much," the teenager squeaked in alarm as he found himself enfolded within a tight motherly hug, blushing horribly as the older woman pulled back and gave him a truly beautiful smile.

"I-I'm glad you like it Haruno-san," he mumbled, abashed.

"I love it," Kaede smiled at the thoughtful boy, as far as she was concerned, Sakura had made a good catch with this one and she should keep him, "She's just down the hall Lee, trying to convince her younger brother he's _not_ going to die from kissing a girl," she explained with an amused shake of her head, wondering if it was something all little boys went through, she didn't recall Sakura ever having such a time.

Lee nodded and bowed again, making sure to toe his shoes off before walking into Kaede-san's beautiful home, he could see the foreign influences now that he was aware of the woman coming from somewhere else. The first time he came into Sakura-chan's home, he had not been aware that her mother came from a different culture, seeing the subtle differences in their home he had simply thought her to be a little odd, now that he knew the truth, looking around he could see the differences that were unique to the woman leading him down the hall way.

His mouth went rather dry when he saw his date for the night stood in front of the door looking rather embarrassed and annoyed.

"Amaya, you aren't sick, it isn't contagious!" she exclaimed through the wood before running a hand through her hair, dislodging her pretty red hair ribbon somewhat.

Lee frowned at that, "Sakura-san, is Amaya-kun unwell?" he asked in concern, already calculating how much he would need to pay the restaurant to cancel his table booking and when they might next be able to reschedule the evening. The lovely Sakura-chan would never abandon her younger brother if he was anything less than healthy!

She sighed and shook her head, "No he's fine," she muttered quietly, so the child wouldn't hear her through the door, "A few weeks ago, he told me that one of his classmates was acting odd, he doesn't know that she had a crush on him. I told him that she had something called Eros, a bit like a cold, it just meant she would act strange for a while so he needed to be patient with her. I didn't think he would try and put himself into quarantine if she managed to kiss him."

Lee stared at her before smiling, "Is your Eros anything like 'Cooties'?" he asked innocently, making the pink haired girl blink and then smile sheepishly at him.

"Yeah, just a little."

He grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "Don't worry. I know _exactly_ what to do," he assured her before pushing open the door – the lock breaking in the process, "Erm, I'll... come and fix that later. Sorry," he admitted, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Sakura shook her head, "Its fine. Just..." she waved a hand, "Help my brother, please?" she pleaded.

Lee nodded solemnly, the beautiful Sakura-san was making a heartfelt plea for her younger brother, he would _not_ fail her! With the Fires of Youth urging him onwards, Lee slipped into the darkened room and took stock of his surroundings, the room was tidy at least, a small pile of books were scattered on the floor beside the child's futon, Lee couldn't help but smile when he saw the miserable lump of blankets all bunched up into a kind of nest.

"Amaya-san?" he asked, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed, only to have the lump squirm away from him.

"Go away! You'll get sick too!" the young voice under the blanket cried out, panic lacing his tone.

Lee chuckled, "I've had Eros before, it's fine. I can't get it anymore," he lied through his pearly whites. Normally he would be incredibly against lying of any sort but when children were this young, sometimes a lie was the only thing they were ready to understand. Slowly, almost warily, a green eye peeked out from the nest.

"R-really? You've had it before?"

Lee nodded, "Yes, coincidentally, it was your sister whom I was afflicted with. But I never touched her, I knew how dangerous it was to do so and I didn't want to make her sick too. So I went looking for the cure so we could be friends again," he lied as he began to pull aside the blankets to reveal the miserable looking four-year-old, his rabbit plushie clutched in a white knuckled grip against his chest, the stag and the toad right there beside him. "Now, let's get you out of there and I'll cure you," he declared, smiling as the dark haired child crawled out and into his lap without any hesitation.

Amaya wanted to go and see Minato and apologise for ruining his birthday, he wanted to go and cure Yoshi-chan so she could play with them again.

Lee nodded and gently took the child's arm, "Now, I only know how to cure boys, for some reason this doesn't work on girls," he explained warningly, as if catching the direction his thoughts were going. Amaya drooped slightly and nodded morosely, it looked as though he would need to find a cure for Yoshi-chan himself, Lee smiled and began to rub a circle on the crook of his elbow, "This will make all the Eros germs rise to your skin, and here's the really important part, you need to sweat them out after this. So train lots and lots and sweat them out and then take a bath and put your clothes in to the washing machine, tomorrow you won't have any Eros and you'll be immune for the rest of your life."

Amaya's eyes were wide, "Really? Honest?"

"Honest," Lee promised with a firm nod.

* * *

The mind boggled.

Ino followed its example, blue eyes wide and uncomprehending.

"Is that... Forehead girl and Fuzzybrows?" the blonde asked, elbowing Shikamaru as they paused in the street, the Interrogation Specialist nodding to the pink and green clad duo as they made their way down the street, chatting amiably.

But that wasn't what made Ino stop and stare.

It was the fact that they were dressed up and Sakura had her hand placed delicately in the crook of Rock Lee's elbow, as though... he were escorting her like the gentlemen did in some of the mainland countries. Sakura even wore _make-up!_ It was light, next to unnoticeable, but it was there in the ever so slight shimmer on her lips and the way her eyes stood out that touch more than usual.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, eyeing the pair, "Lee-san's never going to shut up about this," he muttered resentfully, Lee was troublesome, yes his enthusiasm could be endearing at times – just another part of him that was a little fruity but it was still him – but at others it was more annoying than Naruto's troublesome pranks.

Ino's mouth just worked soundlessly.

* * *

Lee ended up taking her to a nice, modest little café-restaurant in the West District, not far from some of the Clan Compounds, it was small, clean and warmly lit where everyone knew everyone by name and even had a '_usual_'.

Sakura smiled as the staff called greetings to the Taijutsu specialist and asked them who his pretty lady friend was, she couldn't help but giggle when the Hostess ran into the back to inform the cooks about 'Lee-chan' bringing in a lady friend. Apparently, Lee came here a lot and the staff members treated him like family and vice versa, it would have been a little intimidating if she didn't know it was just him taking her to the nicest place he could think of. Lee's definition of nice obviously didn't extend to expensive but rather well made, delicious and homey, which was pretty much him all over now that she thought about it, smiling as he pulled a chair out for her to sit on in one of the back corners next to the window. Very little flash and pomp and illusion, he was all enthusiasm, honesty and down to earth practicality – hence the Spandex, which was god awful in colour and fabric, but one of the cheapest fabrics available and one of the most flexible, which was essential for Taijutsu specialists and blended in rather well with the Konoha terrain.

"Um, what would you like to drink Sakura-san?" he asked nervously as he took a seat, fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves. She couldn't help but smile at how _young_ he seemed in that split second, her more maternal instincts which had been brought to the fore by Amaya's presence cooing in the back of her head.

"Water will be fine Lee-kun. Thank you," she told him, her smile widening as his cheeks dusted pink and he nodded, quickly scuttling to the desk to get them some drinks.

Leaving her with a chance to study her surroundings.

Akamori was a small, pleasant family run café not far from the Clan Compounds and the training grounds attached to them, it was hidden down a quiet residential street with a little garden in the front of the wooden porch, a tiny rock formation, some climbing ivy and a few Bonsai trees nearly obscured the red and gold enamelled Hiragana carvings of the café name. Inside, it was a small counter with a few red stools, everything was carved out of dark Konoha teak wood, there were booths lining the walls with greenery almost everywhere you looked, a small water fountain in the corner to Sakura's left bubbling merrily down a small collection of smooth worn river stones. The people in there were elderly and some were young but none of them were Shinobi save for an elderly woman, her face lined with wrinkles, her head leaning against her husband's arm, the stump of her right leg just reaching the edge of her seat, her trousers having been tied in a knot at that point. Sakura refrained from wincing, her mind conjuring up various ways of how the poor Kunoichi could have lost her limb but there were entirely too many for her to think about and it was putting her off her food.

She firmly turned her mind away just in time to catch Lee placing a glass of chilled water in front of her on a small red dyed reed coaster before taking a seat, a spicy ginger root drink in front of him.

"Are you alright Sakura-san? You seem a little down," he admitted, round eyes peering at her with concern.

She smiled, "It's nothing. My mind just wondered for a moment."

"Oh." There was an awkward silence for a moment, and then, "So... Hung Gar versus the Chu Gar Southern Preying Mantis."

"Oh don't start that again. The two styles are entirely too different to definitively say that one is better than the other! They both have their advantages!" Sakura rebutted, rehashing the old Taijutsu debate they had gotten themselves into at the Party before it descended into a riot of four and five year olds with the ruthlessness of a pack of wolves.

"The footwork of the Preying Mantis makes it a weakness, the Hung Gar is much stronger, when you're in your stance it's next to impossible to break –

"And one someone has that's it, Preying Mantis gives you some flexibility so that a Doton Jutsu won't have you on your ass."

"But you can't deny that it has more powerful strikes, Preying Mantis is much too –

"The difference between the two is in the Affinity, Preying Mantis was _designed_ for Doton users fighting blind. It's almost the perfect Muon Satsujin –

* * *

Outside, Ino, Tenten and Shikamaru were goggling on the two from a rooftop across the street, the male Chuunin having been dragged there by his teammate and run into Tenten on the roof – who was doing exactly the same thing they were doing right now. Spying.

They could see the two shaking their heads, gesturing and grinning before frowning slightly and taking a drink before continuing, Tenten grinned, "Whatever they're talking about must be really interesting, I don't think I've ever seen that look on Lee's face when Sensei wasn't promising to teach him a new technique," she admitted to the other two as Lee said something that made Sakura nearly snort her water through her nose, the pink haired Chuunin choked on her drink and needed to use a napkin to clean her face up while Lee grinned broadly and spoke again, the rosette haired girl shaking her head with a wicked smirk and replying, making the green clad Chuunin pause, blink, frown thoughtfully before a particularly enthusiastic grin came to his face, one that some how seemed a shade menacing.

"I still can't believe they're going on a date," Ino admitted, "And since when did Lee-san look that good?" she demanded, looking at her fellow Kunoichi.

Tenten grinned, "He asked me and Neji for a make-over, he finally cottoned on to the fact that his appearance kind of chased away the ladies. So we did him over and he asked Sakura out," she shook her head upon catching the look on Ino's face, "Don't look like that, she didn't accept him because of the way he looked, well maybe a little, but you should have seen her when he showed up. She looked really guilty and a little upset that he changed so much just to get a date with her. They got talking which then led to this," she explained, gesturing to the pair as Lee mimed something that had the pink haired girl laughing with a hand pressed over her mouth, green eyes practically swimming with tears of laughter.

The three watched in silence as the food was brought out and the pair below tucked in.

"They look good together," Ino suddenly admitted, her tone wondering.

Tenten grunted in agreement while Shikamaru snored softly – he'd fallen asleep the moment they'd arrived, the lazy bum.

* * *

Below, Sakura was telling Lee about the incident with Konohamaru's lesbian jutsu, and the fallout with Moegi afterward she heard Amaya asking the Genin what the two Bunshins were doing to one another.

Lee was torn between horror and hilarity.

* * *

Back at the Haruno house, Kaede watched as her son stubbornly continued to work, his clothing was practically soaked with sweat but he hadn't stopped since Lee-kun and Sakura-chan had left. The red head sighed, smiling wryly, just as stubborn as his mother, when Lily set her mind to something, hell and high water were just minor obstacles to her achievements.

It looked like her son had inherited her stubborn streak; she pitied whatever Jounin Sensei he ended up with.

She was far from foolish, she knew the signs, her little boy would be going to the Ninja Academy the moment he was old enough and if she didn't sign the forms then Sakura would on her behalf and no one would bat an eyelid. She didn't want either of her children to become Shinobi or Kunoichi, but it paid better than any of the other jobs in the village and the health care was better as well, it may have been insanely dangerous, but the benefits were worth it, and every child had dreams of becoming a hero at that age. She supposed it was only natural to want to learn how to become the closest thing they viewed to a hero – the Hokage.

"Why don't you practice with your Senbon, Amaya? You've been improving but you've got a long way to go," she called over to the child, watching and smiling as he nodded and raced inside to hunt down the training equipment Tenten had given to him – an advanced birthday present, she called it. July was coming around soon; she would need to start planning a fifth birthday for Amaya as well.

Five was a big number for such a little boy, after all.

* * *

"By Buddha's saggy left nut sack."

Tsume looked up from where she was guarding the entrance to the Uchiha's private underground bunker, after many hours, swearing, coffee from a thermos kindly provided by Shikaku's wife Yoshino, and Soldier pills, Kakashi had finally cracked the Seal wall. Leading them into a small labyrinth of rooms, no more than five, but they were built under the main house and the Seals that painted the walls were designed purely to keep the Byakugan out, designed to prevent smell or sound from escaping.

They found no bodies within the rooms, they did find the Uchiha's secret library – it had twenty three giant scrolls, each had a number of smaller scrolls stored within then and an even fewer number of scrolls sealed within them, Uchiha Anal Retentiveness insisted they organise their library despite the fact no one aside from the children were likely to ever the inside of it again – in a separate room at the end of the corridor, they found a dormitory big enough to fit the _entire_ family inside, complete with beds, storage scrolls for personal possessions and a large communal bathing area. But in the other rooms... a Weapons storage area with enough weaponry and Chakra blades and Ofuda to take over a small country, a family shrine to Amateratsu, Susanoo and Tsukuyomi with a tiny, smaller side one to the God Inari, little more than a fox statuette on a table with a white lace cover, a small stick of unburned vanilla incense before it. Then they found the Council Chamber and that was when Kakashi stopped breathing, and started swearing.

Tsume placed her fingers in a familiar seal and sent a Kage Bunshin into the Bunker to go and see what got Kakashi's panties in a twist while she absently twirled a Kunai around her finger, senses stretched to the very breaking point. This mission was entirely too important to allow a single hiccup, something was stinky within Konoha and it seemed that a number of powerful individuals were trying to cover it up with entirely too much floral scented air freshener. Trying to hide a squishy unpleasant accident under a rug and pretending the reek was coming from outside.

"What is it, Kakashi?" the Bunshin asked, the Jounin not even looking up from the crumbling dusty maps in front of him, the yellowing scrolls and plans across the long table.

Wordlessly, having long run out of swears vile enough to accurately portray his feelings on the matter, he jabbed a finger at the scroll, moving aside to let the Bunshin take a look.

Several lines in, it too began to swear.

Much, much more colourfully than Kakashi.

'**OPERATION:**** BIRTHRIGHT** – The Uchiha right to rule Konohagakure no Sato'.

* * *

**Finito.**

**It took some time to think of a good name to call the Coupe, in the end I settled on birthright, since the Uchiha Clan essentially helped found the village – conveniently written out of the history books due to Madara's conflict with Hirashima – so they would view the village as **_**their own**_** in a way. With Tsunade not even there, it would also seem like the Senjuu had pretty much left it to them for the taking.**

**Review pleasums.**

Araceil


	10. Chapter 10

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

**WARNING: **None, this time.

* * *

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Ten**

* * *

Last Time: _Sakura and Lee go on a date, Kakashi discovers the Coupe, Amaya is 'cured' of Eros and Danzou is in the poo with Tsunade._

Now: _Tsunade, Kakashi and Shikaku study Operation- Birthright, Amaya learns basic Chakra control and rumours fly._

* * *

It was times like this that Tsunade wished she had Amaya as an assistant again, just reading through these files made her mouth dry with fury and made her fists itch to hit something. She could have really gone for a drink right now but she also knew that she couldn't drink Sake, not right now, not when the Council would leap on anything that could cover their asses.

The blonde woman threw down the files, placing her elbows on the table and rubbing at the steadily building migraine throbbing behind her eyes. A quick glance at her co-conspirators revealed that Shikaku was as irate as she'd ever seen him and Kakashi's face was flat and emotionless. Revealing just how furious the files had made him through the lack of his carefully cultivated mask of apathy and lazy amusement.

The two Jounin looked up in surprise as the woman abruptly spoke up, "Fuck." She declared eloquently, "Shitty fucking, fuckitty shit," she continued in an almost pleasant voice, as though commenting on the weather even as her hands cracked and splintered the edge of her desk with the power of her grip on the wood.

Taking this as an invitation for sharing, Shikaku continued, "I knew these guys were bastards, but damn if this doesn't deserve a trophy or something," he stated, casually tossing his file onto the table with a look of deep disgusted on his face.

Kakashi merely grunted – though it sounded more like a growl impersonating his largest Summon dog Big Bull.

Tsunade gave an inelegant snort in response before Kakashi finally found his tongue, "I can't believe they were planning something this _big_ and no one even _noticed_!" the Jounin burst out, gripping his hair and glaring at the table as though he could place it under the nastiest Genjutsu he humanly could. "_HOW!_ _How_ did no one _notice!_ This is a _ninja_ Village!"

And that was the kicker.

Just how did the Uchiha Clan manage to plan such a large scale take over of Konoha, inserting people into key locations and gathering information on par with A and S class secrets without _anyone_ noticing? Because guaranteed, if someone had noticed something _that_ big, it would have been all over the village within a week – just like Naruto's Jinchuuriki status.

The three of them just sat there, trying to wrap their minds around the enormity of it all.

"Sarutobi-sensei knew something was wrong. Him and Danzou, Homura and Koharu knew something about this, about Itachi. Jiraiya knows as well," Tsunade stated, honey brown eyes narrowed.

Shikaku nodded, "If what Itachi's psychological profile claims is true, then... if the situation were explained to him and he were given the order... I see nothing that would say he _wouldn't_ kill the clan."

Silence.

Tsunade sat down in her seat, feeling every year acutely while Kakashi felt as though the rug had been pulled from under him. The three of them sat in silence for a time because that was the crux of the situation, with all the evidence finally laid out in front of them, the big question was finally asked.

Had Uchiha Itachi slaughtered his Clan on the Orders of the Konoha Council and Hokage?

The more she thought about it, the more she questioned it, the more her logical senses chased their tails, the more her head throbbed, the more the splinters in her hands stung the more pissed off Tsunade became.

Shikaku and Kakashi practically vaulted away from the table as Tsunade's hand crashed through it as her temper snapped.

"SHIZUNE! GET THOSE FUCKING FOSSILS I CALL ADVISERS IN HERE! NO EXCUSES! IF THEY DON'T GET HERE _**I'LL DRAG THEM IN HERE!**_" the busty Hokage screamed as she got to her feet, Chakra flaring visibly around her along in reaction to her blazing temper.

Shizune nodded, her eyes wide but she was handling the fit of anger better than the two men who were still backing away somewhat from their Kage, "Right away Tsunade-sama." She agreed before running past the blonde woman and throwing herself out of the window, legs folding under her as the ground approached, flipping herself over and landing with cat-like grace on her feet. Sandaled feet barely making a sound on the thin guttering she balanced upon before she was off running, Chakra extending out to try and find the two Advisers and Danzou.

By the time they had all arrived, Tsunade had reigned in her anger but it was still there, simmering just under the surface of her icy façade.

"Why have you summoned us, Tsunade?" Homura demanded, he would have gone further but upon seeing the blonde woman's icy features he knew he was in a great deal of trouble. Having known her since she was a little girl he was still capable of reading her face, Tsunade was a hot head, her primary affinity was flame so to see her so icy and cold was a mark of just how deeply in the shit they were.

The fact that Shikaku and Kakashi stood at her side was another thing.

"Did you order Uchiha Itachi to kill his clan?" she finally asked voice tight with restrained violence.

Homura felt as though someone had just punched him through the gut with one of the Seven Swords, a glance to his old Teammate revealed her clutching to her chest as though she were suffering a heart-attack, Danzou however, was impassive. The only sign of his feeling was the tightening of his features. The longer they remained in silence the darker and narrower Tsunade's eyes became.

"What brought this questioning on?" Homura finally managed to ask.

"That is not an answer Homura," the woman stated, this time he noticed the sharpness in her voice and the way every muscle in her body was tense with anger. "Speak," she snapped.

Danzou however was the one that did, "I see that just like your teacher you have poked your nose into business that does not involve you," he sneered. A split second later the three old timers were shielding their eyes as dust and sharp winds swept around them with considerable force, Tsunade having just plunged her hand through her desk and spun it around and _through the wall_ behind her, out into the streets of Konoha below.

"_DO __**NOT**__ TRY MY PATIENCE DANZOU!_" the Hokage roared, fists clenching and unclenching as Killing Intent saturated the room with enough force to freeze all of Homura's muscles in place. It was painful and suddenly terror filled his veins with ice, "I have had enough of you," she hissed darkly, her whole body tipping forward with the grace of a killer, of a Kunoichi still in her prime. "_Answer my question. Did you, or did you not, order Uchiha Itachi to massacre his Clan?_" she hissed malevolently, stood nose to nose with Danzou.

"We did," Koharu admitted from Homura's otherside, snapping Tsunade's attention to her and away from Danzou who visibly relaxed – a split second before Tsunade casually backhanded him without looking to the otherside of the room, breaking his only functioning arm in the process.

"Everything was recorded and hidden within the Sandaime's private records where you found it," Homura admitted with a bowed head, he believed that she had discovered the private files instead of putting two and three together and coming up five, instead of four like everyone else had.

"Kakashi, Shikaku, Shizune, take these three to ANBU interrogation. I don't want them seeing the light of day until I've decided what to do with them. Kakashi, only those you trust implicitly are to guard them," the blonde Hokage ordered, turning away from the two of them to walk to the hole in her office, staring out across Konoha with narrowed eyes. "Then, come back here. There are things we need to speak of."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the three Jounins barked, bowing before they each took one of the Elders and **Shunshin**ed out of the office, Shizune, perhaps being rougher than usual with Danzou.

Overlooking her village, the last of the Senjuu clan sighed and slumped her shoulders, "What have you done Sensei?" she muttered quietly, her voice lost on the wind.

* * *

Amaya had practically devoured the 'Anatomy for Dummies' and the 'Intro to Chakra...', actually he had finished reading both of them and had filled two entire notebooks will little annotations and extras from each of them. He'd even started pestering his mother so he could go and sleep over at the Inuzuka residence so he and Minato could practice their Taijutsu more.

Kaede was worried.

The red haired woman sighed as she watched her adoptive son and biological nephew in the back garden, he was already beginning to tap into his Chakra even though he was having difficulties in controlling it. He'd begun with the Leaf sticking exercise and was having limited success with it, his frustration was making it worse and the leaf kept shooting off his forehead with considerable force.

She could see a lot of Lily in him.

Her youngest sister always had a stubborn streak in her, she worked at things until she was _perfect_ at them. A trait that their other sister Petunia did not share, she felt that as Lily's older sister she should have been better at everything automatically, meaning that she never practised and when she inevitably failed she threw a strop and took it out on Lily who was really too young to understand why her older sister seemed to hate her. Yes. Amaya was a lot like Lily, right down to that blood thirsty streak they both kept carefully hidden from the rest of the world with their guileless green eyes. Kaede chuckled slightly, she remembered the first time Lily had lost her temper, truly lost it to the point where violence was the first order of the day, ironically it was with a boy in her class and not Petunia who had cut her hair that morning because she was jealous of the long fiery red locks.

He'd been teasing her for something or other, Rosemary had been too old and too far removed from a six-year-old's life to care much about what petty teasing her littlest sister was put through. But eventually, Lily's usually fiery but well controlled temper snapped, she remembered waiting at the gates for her sisters to get out of class only to hear a scream of alarm and witness her littlest sister chase a boy two years older than herself across the grass, tackle him to the ground and latch her nasty little baby teeth into his forearm while she punched, slapped, kneed, kicked, elbowed, clawed, and yanked at everything her hands and feet could get in range of. All the while grinding her teeth into the boy's arm hard enough to go through the skin and into the meat below.

It took ten minutes to separate them with Rosemary and the mother of the little boy snapping and snarling at one another defensively over their respective youngsters. She remembered that it had been the _first_ time she'd ever looked at her youngest sister and _seen_ her, not just a kid sister but seen Lily herself.

She had been so small but ferocious in a way that a child her age couldn't have been under normal circumstances. Almost feral and wild in a way. The same way that Amaya had been when she first saw him, but he carried the air of a beaten dog while his mother was nothing short of a feral hunting cat.

Kaede sighed as she dried the last of the dishes, she knew the moment Amaya saw Kakashi vanish in a puff of smoke in the middle of the kitchen he would become a Shinobi, with or without Sakura subtly pushing him into it.

It was the way of all little boys to like explosions and shiny things after all.

* * *

"Neechaaaan!" Amaya wailed, running through Training Ground 8 looking for his sister.

He hopped lightly over a trip wire that was no doubt Tenzou's work before he noisily made his way into a clearing; he blinked and deflated a bit, "Oh. Sorry. I... I thought Neechan was here," he muttered, "My apologies!" he exclaimed, bowing low at the group of three.

The Kunoichi smiled warmly, "Its no problem Amaya-kun," she assured him gently.

"What's the problem? Why'd you need to see her?" one of the boys asked, leaning back lazily against his animal companion who snorted at him in indignation over being used as a chair.

Amaya bit his lip, cheeks pinking in embarrassment. "I can't get this damn Leaf Trick to work!" he finally burst out with an angry scowl on his features. "I can make 'em shoot off hard enough to cut things but I can't make 'em stick," he explained churlishly.

The Kunoichi nodded seriously, "That is a problem Amaya-chan," she said gravely, glancing at her teammates, the boy who spoke earlier grinned toothily while the silent one merely inclined his head and adjusted his sunglasses.

Hinata smiled bright and patted the grass beside her, "Why don't you come here and I'll explain it Amaya-chan?" she suggested.

"Hai!" the four-year-old chirped happily and bounded to her side like an excited puppy.

* * *

While Hinata and Shino were coaching a certain four-year-old through the Academy basic Chakra Control exercise, there was a flurry of activity and gossip amidst the Market today.

Because the civilians rarely ever did anything of much excitement, gossip had become _their_ realm of expertise, any gossip relating to shinobi was even more sought after because of just how much more exciting their lives there in comparison to their own. Which was why right now, Yamanka Ino was the bee's knees amidst the nosy old ladies of the market place, retelling her story with relish at every opportunity as she studied each of the wares on offer.

Anything to do with the Rookie Twelve was always hot gossip, their love lives even more so.

News of the Hokage's apprentice becoming involved with a young man would be all over the Village by sundown with Ino's help.

**

* * *

**

Bit of a short chapter this time, more of a filler than anything. Again, I thought that the chapter plan would help me squeeze more in but apparently this was about as much as I could.

**Review pleasums. Less-than-three you!**

Araceil


	11. Chapter 11

Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

**WARNING: Naruto being smart/philosophical, slight Sasuke!Bashing, slight Uchiha!Bashing, Jiraiya being a pervy rake and Amaya being oblivious and adorable**.

* * *

**A Mile in Your Eyes**

**Chapter Eleven**

* * *

Last Time: _Tsunade confronts the Advisers, Amaya begins the basics of Chakra Control, Ino spreads gossip__._

Now: _The truth revealed, a retrieval mission begins, realisations made and Jiraiya discovers how useful children can be__._

* * *

When one survived as a Shinobi for as many years as Gama-Sennin Jiraiya, one developed some very finely honed instincts regarding your well being.

So the moment he stepped foot inside Tsunade's office, every single one of them went off as he took in the sight of his old Teammate sat on the floor surrounded by old files and glaring hot death at him. His eyes flickered around the office only to land on the picture of their sensei, a picture that had been removed from the wall revealing the Storage Seal behind it. The storage seal that had all of their SS-ranked secrets hidden within.

His blood ran cold.

"Tsunad- "

"You're a really terrible liar Jiraiya," she interrupted with a glare. The Sennin bristled slightly in anger, he was a fantastic liar! His speciality was infiltration, stealth and information gathering! He was Konoha's top Spy Master! "You looked me in the eye and you told me that Uchiha Itachi wasn't your informant on the Akatsuki," she continued, looking him sternly in the face, "You _looked me in the eye, Jiraiya,_" she repeated, "If you're going to lie, make sure your eyes remain on my chest where they usually are. At least then it won't be so obvious."

Jiraiya blinked and then choked, _what!_ He had given himself away by _not_ being a pervert!

"Look at this," the blonde woman ordered, holding out a folder towards him, "A small excursion to hunt down the Uchiha Jutsu library to boost the battle capabilities of our Shinobi turned up a secret underground bunker where this was discovered. Operation: Birthright. We've looked it over quite thoroughly, and the only conclusion we could draw from the data is that someone of a high rank within the village has been helping them with their little Coupé," Jiraiya read through the information. It wasn't much of a shock to him, he had been there when Itachi had explained his family's plan to the Sandaime, but the knowledge of just how thorough and extensive their planning had been was a surprise, and a disturbing one at that because his experienced and admittedly embittered mind could draw no other conclusion other than the one Tsunade had already arrived at. There had been someone outside of the Uchiha Clan, high up within the chain of command, aiding them in their endeavours.

"Any idea - "

"Majority of the money is on Danzou," she answered promptly.

"Of course it is," Jiraiya muttered, smart money anyway. The Sandaime had made certain that everyone in the village knew of Orochimaru's Kekkei Genkai obsession and the Uchiha were as zealous as the Hyuuga about protecting their blood line. The only reason they hadn't branded their clansmen with their own variation of the Caged Bird seal was because the Sharingan was CRAP at memorising Fuuinjutsu and none of them were willing to put the effort in to learn it the old fashioned way. Lazy bastards.

The white haired Sannin crouched down beside her and picked up one of the files, scowling when he realised it was the plan in which the Uchiha had been detailing how they would handle the Hospital and everyone within it. It basically boiled down to keeping all the Medic Nin alive, killing all the Jounin and ANBU and holding the children hostage against their parents. _Bastards!_

"What are we going to do?" he asked, looking up at his teammate and feeling all the hairs on his arms stand to attention again at the look on her face.

* * *

Kaachan hadn't let him go and see Sakura-neechan off.

Amaya stared out of the rain soaked windows, hugging his rabbit plushie tightly, he hoped she didn't get a cold, it looked horrid out there.

The four-year-old wrinkled his nose as he absently chewed on a long fluffy white ear; he wondered what they were doing now, were they alright? Were they warm enough? Did Neechan remember to take the lucky pebble Amaya found for her? The pretty red and pink one that he asked Lee-san to carve her name into. He hoped she did. It was lucky, and missions were dangerous.

He scowled unhappily. Living with the Dursleys, he had always been more interested in protecting himself. They had never shown him any familial affection, any tolerance or kindness, they hurt him, they neglected and forgot him, he had to fend for himself when he was with them, they were just cruel strangers he happened to live with. But Sakura, Sakura-neechan and Kaede-kaachan and Takeshi-touchan, they weren't, they treated him like family. Called him son, called him brother, called him _theirs_. And he didn't want that to end, didn't want Sakura-nee to die, or Kaede-kaachan to hate him or Takeshi-touchan to hurt him.

Getting to his feet, Amaya dropped his rabbit and went to find his mother.

"Kaachan," he said, finding her in the living room reading an orange coloured book – didn't Kashi-ji read those? "I want to go to Ninja Academy," he announced.

Kaede could only sigh and nod her head.

* * *

The rain was thick and heavy, the sky dark with ominous black clouds as if foretelling what was to come. The only way the scene could get more dramatic is if the sky occasionally growled and lit up with thunder and lightning – thankfully for Kiba and Akamaru's eardrums, it didn't.

The group left Konoha at some speed, moving towards one of the unmanned outposts so that they could begin their mission planning away from prying ears.

After all, Team 8 would need to be brought up to speed regarding the Uchiha Massacre and their Operation: Birthright in relation to Itachi and Akatsuki. Right now, they thought that Itachi was the enemy and they were trying to use him as bait to bring Sasuke back into Konoha – not using Naruto as bait to bring Itachi back into Konoha. Speaking of Naruto, since Tsunade and Jiraiya explained the truth he had fallen into a state of turmoil, going quiet at moments with a far-away look in his eyes and at others becoming unduly aggressive.

"Alright then," Kakashi called as the group landed atop the roof of the abandoned outpost, "Pull up a tile, we need to explain the mission in detail," the Jounin explained, watching as Sakura, Naruto and Sai sat down immediately and without question. All three of them were already aware of what their full Mission was, Naruto having explained everything to Sai straight up the moment they met up after speaking with Tsunade. It seemed as though the blond had changed somewhat with the Uchiha revelation, Kakashi's eye lingered on his most troublesome student, at was as though he had been startled into thinking before he acted for once. He had even shown up armed with Fuuinjutsu scrolls hidden upon his person and Kakashi had no idea what was in them.

"So, what's happenin'?" Kiba asked leaning up against the monstrous Akamaru.

"First, I need to explain the situation in full," the silver haired Jounin declared, "As of three months ago, there was a certain incident involving an overly curious four year old managing to get into the Hokage's private record room," Sakura flushed at this point when everyone looked at her, after all, her little brother was the only four year old who had pretty much unrestricted access to the Tower, Kakashi just eyesmiled, "This four year old stumbled across an error amidst the scrolls and brought it to the Hokage's attention, not long after, someone rather _unsubtly_ attempted to cover this error up. However the damage was done and several things were called into doubt. Most prominent of which being the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre."

"The truth? What's there to know! Itachi went psycho-crazy and butchered 'em all!" Kiba exclaimed, waving a fist.

Kakashi shook his head, "The truth of which being that the Uchiha Clan were executed for High Treason, for attempting to depose the Hokage and the Council, assassinate the Daimyou and take forcible dictatorship over Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni on the whole. From that point, it would not be far out of the realms of possibility that they would have turned their attention to other countries in an attempt to conquer them, thus starting the Fourth Shinobi War.

"Itachi was ordered to execute his Clan by the order of the Sandaime Hokage and the Council of Elders, after which, he left Konoha and joined Akatsuki as a Spy in Jiraiya-sama's circle."

The collection of Chuunin were silent, Team 8 staring at him in varying levels of shock and horror, Team Kakashi silent and avoiding eye contact.

"Wait, wait, wait, back the '_What The Fuck_' train up a sec," Kiba hollered, waving his arms comically, "You mean to tell me, Itachi's on Deep Cover as a Spy in Akatsuki and to get in, they had him kill his Traitorous clan?"

"Yes, though the idea of becoming a Spy came after arrangements for the Uchiha's execution had been made. In truth, Itachi was to be the _only_ survivor, Sasuke was to die along with the rest of his family leaving Itachi to repopulate the clan alone," the Jounin explained, "Our mission," Kakashi continued, "is to make contact with Uchiha Itachi and inform him of his reinstatement as a Konoha Ninja and issue his Return orders from Tsunade-sama. If he refuses, then we are to take him by force."

Naruto pulled out the Storage Scrolls, "In there are a number of things that may be useful, Drug Pellets full of sedative or paralysis agents, wire netting, Flash tags, Concussive tags, Chakra Seal Tags and they each carry a copy of Tsunade-baachan's official orders, signed and sealed by the office of the Hokage," he explained, handing out each tightly coiled scroll to his comrades. "Don't look him in the eye or look at his hands, he's a Genjutsu Master on the same level as Baachan and he doesn't need seals to trap you," he warned.

"Good thinking Naruto, but I don't think these will be very helpful. Itachi is of S-rank," Tenzou pointed out, scratching thoughtfully under his head guard.

Naruto shook his head, "I noticed something weird last time I met Itachi. His eyes hardly moved, at all. Back when we were younger, he was a lot more mobile, he visually checked his surroundings a lot... But last time... He must've trained his Sharingan to the next level. Meaning he's allowed his other senses to dull – Sasuke had that problem too," the Jinchuuriki explained unravelling one of the scrolls and releasing the Seals, showing each item in it to his Group.

"These Flash Tags are designed to let out a flare of light similar to looking directly into the sun. It'll blind him for a good five minutes. The Concussive Tags are similar to an explosive tag but they store the force and not the explosion, set this off and he'll be deafened. The Wire netting is one of Tenten's creations, it can't be cut because it's threaded with Chakra conductive monofilament – I got the idea when I saw Hinata's defensive Jutsu, if you channel your Chakra through it then you can control it as long as you keep contact and feed it. The Chakra Seal tag needs to go on the stomach or chest or the small of the back, somewhere near to or just above the primary Chakra Coils. This'll prevent him from using Jutsus. All we need to do is implement them in a way he can't avoid it."

There was a moment of silence while everyone stared at Naruto, taken aback by how... intelligently he had prepared for this mission.

"Wow, Dickless, did you finally figure out where you put your balls or something?" Sai asked, diffusing the situation with all the finesse of Sakura in a bad mood – which got him a punch to the back of the head from the afore mentioned girl.

Naruto didn't rise to it, "Probably. Sasuke's trying to murder his brother, he doesn't know the full story. Our first priority is getting Itachi out of the way and back into Konoha where he'll be safe from Akatsuki and then using him as bait to lure Sasuke back home where we'll explain the full situation and PROVE it to him. Otherwise he won't believe a damn word and just try to kill everyone," the blond explained bitterly.

Sakura frowned, "Naruto, what are you – " she began only to get cut off when the blond shook his head again.

"Let's just do this," he requested, not looking at her.

* * *

To tell the truth... Sasuke, he was...

_Beyond hope._

It wasn't something Naruto wanted to admit, he never wanted to admit it, to give up on his friend, his brother, but... truth was a bitter pill to swallow and it was also one he couldn't avoid.

He'd been forced to swallow a lot of those bitter pills in his life – he knew when he had to man up and accept it.

But no matter how much he '_manned up_', he didn't think he would ever be able to handle the look in Sakura's eyes if she knew about his traitorous thoughts, about the budding doubts and dark revelations he had been discovering about their ex-Teammate. Those doubts and revelations he tried so hard to shield her from.

She still remembered Sasuke as the quiet and slightly shy boy who would snort and call him Deadlast before dragging him off to where ever it was they were supposed to go next, she still remembered the twelve year old with the delicate face and soft hands who had never taken a life nor experienced True Killing Intent. She remembered Sasuke.

Naruto couldn't forget the Uchiha. He couldn't forget the look of malice and hatred in his eyes, the flowering darkness that wrapped so lovingly around him in that split second when he entered into Naruto's mind and flexed his power – dispersing Kyuubi's caustic influence. Naruto couldn't forget the tang he could taste in the air, the coppery iron film that coated the back of his mouth when Uchiha's scent hit him like a Katon to the senses, ozone and blood and metal, not the old scent of smoke and jasmine and polish that used to cling to Sasuke when they were younger. Naruto couldn't forget the feeling of the Uchiha's fingers clawing into his lungs, reaching for his heart, trying to grasp the fluttering organ and rip it out even as the electricity scolded and burned at his flesh. Naruto couldn't forget the look in his eyes when the Uchiha raised his weapon again and spoke such pathetic words in his ear.

'_Whim_'. No, not by your whim, by your Master's ego more like.

And that was the crux of the problem, Naruto wasn't stupid, he didn't have the intelligence of Shikamaru or even Sakura, he wasn't manipulative like Ino or steadfast like Chouji or instinctive like Kiba.

He was cunning and perceptive. He knew that much.

So he knew.

He knew that when he looked into the Uchiha's eyes, those obsidian empty eyes and felt the touch of his mind and power, heard about his actions and the demise of Orochimaru.

He knew...

Sasuke was beyond saving.

At this point... Naruto could only save the memory of the little boy who leaped in front of him, taking a blow from an Angel hidden beneath a Monster's Mask(1).

He would rescue that little boy – by destroying the Monster that held him hostage.

* * *

The new Academy Term didn't start until next month so Amaya was left to his own devices for the most part.

He was too young to get into the Library on his own and the Ninja in there always caught him when he tried to sneak in – the lady behind the desk thought he was adorable and often treated him like an idiot, Amaya didn't like her and continued to try and sneak in. He could tell that he was getting better because her hair got more and more messy the better he got.

But before he could make his latest attempt he found himself being scooped up under the armpits from behind.

"Lemme go!" the four year old howled, flailing around and grabbing at the hands holding him up, trying to bend the fingers back or tear their fingernails off.

The man holding him laughed and promptly dropped him, grabbing him by the ankle and lifting him up again before he could hit the ground. Amaya swung up and sank his teeth into the stranger's hand growling in a fair imitation of Minato when he got angry.

"Hey, hey, hey, enough of that!" the man exclaimed, shaking the four year old off and glowering at him, "Jeez, you're even more troublesome than Tsunade said you were," he complained making the four year old stop squirming and stare at him.

"Tsuna-chan?" he asked, immediately forgetting about his misplaced aggression on the stranger.

He was a very strange man, very big and broad with funny clothes and long spiky white hair and a silver thing on his nose and red lines coming down from his eyes. He had a big scroll on his back, kinda like Naruto's when he was off somewhere. There was a symbol on his head-guard that Amaya hadn't learned yet.

The big man grinned, "Tsuna-chan?" he echoed, "Well I can see why she likes you. Names Jiraiya kid, the Great Sage Jiraiya, Naruto's Sensei," he added as he recalled this child grew up outside of the village and had probably never heard of him as anything beyond Naruto's teacher. It never failed to amuse the Toad Hermit that his student was so popular with little kids, Tsunade had been practically cooing over how adorable the younger generation were when following the blond around like chicks after a mother duck (Tsunade cooing like that was the _SCARIEST fucking thing_ Jiraiya had _ever_ seen). If he hadn't seen it himself then he wouldn't have believed it but it was true, the Pre-academy brats worshipped the ground his student walked on.

Good thing too, they would be the Chuunin and Genin of Naruto's Village when he became Hokage. He would need soldiers he could rely on.

"The one who writes the naughty books Kashi-ji reads?" the green eyed child asked before pointing at him, "PERVERT!" he wailed, wriggling in his grasp and howling – attracting the attention of every woman in the area.

'_Cheeky little – _' He didn't have time for grudging admiration as an off duty Kunoichi – he recalled her as one of his inspirational muses for Icha Icha Tactics – threw a hail of kunai and Shuriken at him, snarling at him to unhand Haruno-kun. Laughing and telling her it was Hokage's orders, the Sannin flipped the child until he was curled against his chest – now attempting to claw through the protective mesh armour he wore – and **Shunshin**ed out of there before he got stabbed in the back of the head by an incensed mother of three using the fishmonger's knife.

Really, women and their protective reflexes over kids. Scary thing.

Landing in one of the training fields, Jiraiya grumbled and held the four year old away from himself again, glaring into those innocent guileless green eyes.

This child...

This child was a demon in a cutesy shell.

Amaya just smirked at him.

* * *

He was being punished for something, Jiraiya just knew it.

Tsunade knew exactly how to push his buttons and the moment she started talking about the little four year old his interest had been peaked.

She probably also knew he was an absolute hellion who had the whole village wrapped around his little finger and knew exactly what to say to get any hapless red blooded males in the immediate vicinity the beating of a lifetime.

What was more, he kept getting hugged. Getting squished against all those gloriously soft mammary glands, those bazookas, the sweater puppies, all those damn _boobs_! He would have been more annoyed if the kid enjoyed the attention, but it seemed as though he wasn't too keen on getting smothered with all of those magnificent breasts – big ones, small ones, well shaped ones, lopsided ones, boobs, _boobs, __**boobs**_!

Jiraiya was so fucking jealous.

On the other hand... A cunning plan began to form in his mind.

This could be worked to his advantage.

* * *

"Ero-jiji, why are we here?" Amaya asked, attempting to pull his hand free of the older Shinobi's grasp yet finding it impossible with the grip the old man kept on him. He pouted, seriously not cool getting stuck with this guy all day, he was no fun.

"Shut it brat, this is called Research," the Sannin retorted.

Amaya sighed, "You're just trying to get a peek on the Hotsprings," he complained.

"Nope!" the old man exclaimed cheerfully, he wasn't as a matter of fact, he was trying to pick up a date – even better than spying in his opinion, he got to have sex afterwards. Hey, hey, he'd been celibate for far too long while training Naruto. Serious case of blue balls right now.

And as he had already seen – the ladies went crazy for a big pair o' googly eyes.

"Now shut up and look cute, Brat," the Sannin ordered making the four year old blow his cheeks out and sulk unhappily at getting stuck with this old geezer when he wanted to go and play with Minato and the others.

They'd been stood there for ages and Amaya was so bored he was getting sleepy, swaying on his feet and yawning, clutching at Jiraiya's hand out of sleepy reflex so he didn't fall over. Of course the old man didn't notice, he was too busy chatting up the Civilian woman who'd wondered over to say hello to Amaya – Ero-jiji was saying stupid things, hide and seek was only fun if you did it Ninja style, you couldn't play Ninja Hide and Seek in bed, that was just pointless. The bed was too small.

"Amaya-chan? Are you alright?" sleepy green eyes peered up at a familiar brunette and he smiled, rubbing at one eye.

"Lo, Ten-chan," he chirped quietly as the bun haired Chuunin knelt down to his eye-level, he wriggled his hand free of Jiraiya and held his arms out to her, "Up, please," he pleaded.

Smiling, the Chuunin scooped the four year old up, juggling the bag of groceries as he clung to her – giving the oblivious Jiraiya a dirty look, the Chuunin carried on her way towards the training grounds, he could sleep there on the side lines and his presence would keep Gai and Lee at a more tolerable volume. She was worried that her hearing was getting bad because of their shouting about the flames of youth.

Half an hour later, when he had finished securing the time and place of his Date later that night, Jiraiya realised he had lost the Brat and promptly freaked out – rushing around Konoha calling for the brat.

He spent so long looking that he never actually made it for his Date.

* * *

**(1) Angel hidden beneath a Monster's Mask:** No prizes for guessing who this is – Haku.

* * *

**Tell me what you think of Naruto's resolve. I tried to make it as realistic as possible to his thought processes while twisting and maturing them enough to ****DO THE SMART THING FOR ONCE****.**

_Also, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I have made multiple updates as an apology for taking so long to update. Also, on my profile will be a link to a Webcomic I am working on. It should update weekly and its called Annen Rute for those of you who follow me on DeviantART, I will tell you now that I'm redoing the Prologue and redesigning several characters, I'm doing my research properly and I've been studying HTML and CSS in order to make the website look as good as possible. Sadly, not been having much luck, SO, if anyone is any good at that, I would love to hear from you. XDD Drop me a PM or an e-mail or message me on Facebook. I will pay you in Fanart ;D_


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